VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A hearing over the disposal of radioactive waste in Van Buren Township brought out concerned community members and elected officials who clarified that they do not want it near their community.
“This is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever seen in my life,” Belleville Mayor Kenneth Voigt said after the hearing. “If you took out a map of Michigan, you couldn’t have found a worse spot to put a landfill.”
Voigt was among several residents, experts, residents, and elected officials who testified that the dumping plan is not only a bad idea but that Wayne Disposal, the company at the center of the plan, has not been transparent in how it has dealt with the situation.
80-year-old historic nuclear waste
At issue is the dumping of waste leftover from the 1942 Manhattan Project, which was the research project that created the atomic bomb during World War II.
The waste is coming from upstate New York, near Niagara Falls, and has met loud and swift resistance from residents in all the neighboring communities.
Wayne Disposal, one of the nation’s largest hazardous waste landfills, is looking to expand its Van Buren Township facility despite mounting community opposition and recent controversies over radioactive waste acceptance.
Through a vertical expansion, the facility operator has applied to increase disposal from 22.5 million cubic yards to 27.6 million cubic yards.
“The more we have, the worse it gets”, Voigt said. “You have this facility that’s taking all these forever chemicals, and then we’re throwing radioactive material in on top of it. To me, that’s a recipe for disaster.”
Also at issue is what is seen as a lack of transparency from Wayne Disposal.
Van Buren Fire Chief Dave McInally testified that he was not told that the company was dumping the nuclear waste at the landfill.
Voigt noted that the landfill’s license expired three years ago and has been operating under a series of temporary extensions.
In a statement, Wayne Disposal said “We provide safe, responsible and essential waste disposal services for industries in Michigan and throughout the region. The facility is permitted and equipped to securely manage these wastes streams and operates in compliance with all regulatory requirements.”
Voigt did not understate the potential issues the landfill’s location could pose.
“It’s three-tenths of a mile roughly from Belleville Lake, which leads right into the Huron River Watershed, which leads into Lake Erie,” Voigt said. “There’s 360,000 people living out there. It’s not far from I-94. If there’s a major incident, that could be closed for potentially months.”
