This story has been updated with new information.
A Wayne County hazardous waste landfill has been permanently barred by a Wayne County Circuit judge from receiving elevated radioactivity waste from historic atomic bomb and atomic energy development sites.
The landfill continuing to receive such wastes “will increase the risk of disease, cancer and other health risks to Plaintiffs’ communities which will continue to increase over time,” Judge Kevin Cox stated in granting a permanent injunction against Wayne Disposal on Wednesday, May 27.
Owned by Phoenix-based waste management giant Republic Services, Wayne Disposal Inc. is one of the largest hazardous waste landfills in the United States, located off Interstate 94 freeway in Van Buren Township. It is licensed to receive hundreds of the most toxic substances in the world, but it raised particular community ire with its receipt of out-of-state shipments of so-called Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material, or TENORM, materials whose natural radioactivity has been artificially concentrated or exposed to the environment by human activities.
The wastes were coming from a federal cleanup program, the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, or FUSRAP, an environmental cleanup initiative started in 1974 to remediate low-level radioactive waste and chemical contamination left behind by the nation’s early atomic energy and weapons programs.
Van Buren Township, Canton and the cities of Belleville and Romulus took Wayne Disposal to court in September 2024 after learning the landfill was preparing to receive another 6,000 cubic yards of elevated radioactivity waste from the Niagara Falls Storage Site in Lewiston, New York. The Niagara site from 1944 to 1952 received radioactive wastes associated with uranium extraction for the Manhattan Project’s development of atomic bombs during and just after World War II. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing a long-term remediation of the Niagara site to remove contaminated materials to a degree that allows for the property’s future industrial use.
Cox issued a temporary injunction against the elevated-radioactivity waste shipments in August 2025 and held a bench trial in February.
In granting the permanent injunction, Cox supported the cities’ and townships’ contention that the elevated-radioactivity wastes posed potential environmental and other local harms.
“Environmental injury is often long-lasting or permanent, and is not adequately remediable by money damages,” Cox stated. “The Court finds the harms here irreparable and notes the intended additional waste will remain in the landfill forever, making future compensation ineffective.”
Monitoring and engineering controls aren’t sufficient, Cox stated. “Radionuclides can permeate covers; radon cannot be contained, can migrate through liners, and is not otherwise monitored at nearby schools and communities. As the volume of TENORM increases, environmental and adverse public health risks increase. Preventing additional shipments is in the public’s best health interest.”
Other potential usable landfills far less populated than Wayne
Cox, in his permanent injunction, cited trial testimony finding “substantial and credible evidence (of a) statistically significant increase in certain cancers in men and women in communities adjacent to” the Niagara Falls Storage Site.
He also noted that Wayne County’s population vastly exceeds that surrounding other potential landfill sites where the elevated radioactivity materials could be shipped — with Wayne County being five times larger than the next most populous alternative, 150 times larger than the least populous alternative.
“The record also indicates that the less populated alternatives (in Texas, Utah and Idaho) are drier and arid, in striking contrast to the abundant freshwater resources located throughout Wayne County and surrounding the (Wayne Disposal Inc.) location,” Cox stated.
Wayne Disposal is surrounded by homes and businesses, including a school within a third of a mile from its fence line, day care centers and 2,000 students within 10 miles, Cox noted. He cited evidence offered by Belleville Mayor Kenneth Voigt and Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara that “their communities have experienced decreased property values, diminished business investment, reputational damage and psychological damage associated with their proximity to” the Wayne Disposal landfill and its proposed acceptance of more elevated radioactivity wastes.
‘We are not a dumping ground for dangerous radioactive waste’
Republic Services spokesman Roman Blahoski said the company “respectfully disagrees with the court’s decision, and we will appeal it.”
“Wayne Disposal, Inc. is a safe, well‑managed facility that is specifically engineered to handle FUSRAP TENORM and other complex waste streams. This ruling sets a troubling precedent that undermines protections afforded to interstate commerce and impedes site remediation, as well as the safe and effective long‑term management of these materials for customers in Michigan and throughout the country.”
State Rep. Reggie Miller, D-Van Buren Township, celebrated the judge’s ruling for the local cities and townships, “who stood up and made it clear that we are not a dumping ground for dangerous radioactive waste.”
“This outcome did not happen by accident,” she said. “It happened because residents spoke up, local governments took action, advocates stayed engaged, and people refused to back down when faced with a dangerous status quo.”
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Radioactive waste shipments to Wayne County landfill permanently halted
Reporting by Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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