A judge has temporarily blocked more radioactive waste from coming to a western Wayne County landfill while a lawsuit challenging it proceeds.
Last year, local officials were outraged when they discovered that 6,000 cubic yards of low-level radioactive waste from a former Manhattan Project site was about to be landfilled at Wayne Disposal in Van Buren Township. That location had accepted waste from similar places before as part of an ongoing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to clean up former sites associated with developing the first atomic bomb.
But this time Van Buren Township and other nearby communities sued Republic Services, the company that transports the waste, citing the potential groundwater contamination and other environmental impacts in an area they say is already overburdened by pollution. And this week, Wayne County Judge Kevin Cox issued a preliminary injunction barring any waste from project sites nationwide from being landfilled at Wayne Disposal.
Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara declared himself “beyond thrilled” with the decision. “We did everything in our power to safeguard our residents in stopping out-of-state radioactive waste from entering our community and we feel vindicated by this ruling,” he said in a statement.
Republic Services, by contrast, called the ruling “overly broad” and said it will “have detrimental impacts” on the effort to remediate the former nuclear project sites.
"Responsible management and disposal of these waste streams is an essential need, and Wayne Disposal, Inc. is designed and permitted to safely manage this material,” the company said in a statement. “Wayne Disposal will continue to pursue a just and proper resolution of the matter."
