BELLEVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) — Wayne Disposal, a hazardous waste facility in Belleville, has faced growing public scrutiny over the last few years. Residents successfully rallied to stop leftover radioactive waste from a New York Manhattan Project site, which is currently being held up in court.
Watch Brett's story in the video player below:
Now, residents are turning their sights to an application from Wayne Disposal, which is looking to grow their landfill with a vertical expansion.
Wayne Disposal in Belleville is roughly 600 acres, and about a third of that is an active hazardous waste landfill. We took a tour of the facility to see what protections are in place.
From the moment trucks carrying hazardous waste roll into Wayne Disposal, testing begins, a white sensor tests for radiation levels while workers sample the material and test it in their on-site lab, making sure it’s acceptable.
“Most of the material that comes in is contaminated soil," said Sylwia Scott, area environmental compliance manager with Republic Services.
Scott says the facility accepts what’s called low activity radioactive waste, which is considered less harmful than nuclear and low-level radioactive waste — both of which, she says, the site does not accept.
"Being that we’re in an industrial community, a lot of industrial waste includes solids that are from wastewater treatment systems, air pollution control equipment,” said Scott.
According to Scott, the majority of waste comes from out of state and is primarily a bi-product of manufacturing, which is why they’re located in a heavy manufacturing area.
"As a society, we're really pressing to bring industry back to the United States and build more, and that’s going to make these types of assets even more critical to those operations,” said Bill Carr, general manager of Wayne Disposal.
Carr says the next step for arriving trucks is to head to the landfill, where the waste is first transferred to containers to avoid cross-contamination.
“The main purpose of that transfer spot is to make sure we don't have traffic going into a landfill,” said Carr.
Carr says the landfill has multiple layers of protection, and the facility has over 100 monitoring points — checking the air, along with groundwater. He says all water on property, whether it touches the landfill or not, is captured and treated, before it leaves.
"I can tell you that all groundwater sampling that we've done, we've proven time and time again that there’s no issues. This landfill is not leaking, people can rest assured of that," he said.
Related Story: Lawmakers oppose more hazardous waste dumping in Wayne County
Jeneen Rippey is speaking on behalf of her organization, Michigan Against Atomic Waste, and the roughly 1,200 local residents who have joined.
“That data is not readily available to the public, and it's like the fox watching the henhouse. Yes, the EGLE does have some oversight, but I have concerns," said Rippey.
The group has organized multiple rallies, first opposing the shipment of leftover waste from a Manhattan Project site in New York State to now opposing a vertical expansion that Wayne Disposal is asking for.
"The vertical expansion will go to 225 feet, and it will be a visible landmark in our community, impacting home values and businesses," said Rippey.
Carr showed us where the expansion would happen — in a gap between two existing mounds.
“We have the opportunity to fill this gap, not expand the existing footprint of the landfill and maximize the space we have available to our customer base,” said Carr.
Rippey lives on nearby Belleville Lake, and has concerns over the site’s impact on local waterways. While the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy will hold another public hearing on the expansion, many residents continue to push for less hazardous waste, and Wayne Disposal hopes to convince them, it’s safe.
“Leak detention, groundwater monitoring, radon monitoring, perimeter air monitoring, all of it is showing there’s no exposure," said Scott.
Rippey says, “at a very minimum, I believe we need to have independent third-party testing to protect our community, to ensure everyone feels safe.”
EGLE will be holding that public meeting on September 18.
