Detroit suburbs sue to try to stop the shipment of radioactive soil from New York

VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Communities near a suburban Detroit landfill are suing to try to stop the shipment of World War II-era radioactive soil from New York state.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Wayne County court follows a tense town hall meeting and claims by elected officials, including two members of Congress, that they were in the dark about plans to bring truckloads to a landfill in Van Buren Township, roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Detroit, through the end of the year.

“The Michigan public will no longer tolerate Wayne County being the nation’s dumping ground of choice for a wide range of hazardous materials,” according to the lawsuit.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is managing the project, has said the Michigan site is the closest licensed disposal facility that can take the material.

Belleville, Romulus, Canton Township and Van Buren Township are asking for an injunction halting the deliveries. The lawsuit says area fire officials do not have a strategy or equipment to respond if problems occur at the landfill.

Critics also want time to weigh in on whether Republic Services, which operates the site, should be granted a new state operating license. The Phoenix-based company had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.

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The waste is described as low-level radioactive leftovers from the Manhattan Project, a secret government project to develop atomic bombs during World War II and featured in the 2023 movie “Oppenheimer.”

WIVB-TV reported in August that contaminated soil was being moved from Lewiston, New York. The TV station posted a photo of an enormous white bag that resembled a burrito, one of many that would make the trip.

State environmental regulators, speaking at a Sept. 4 public meeting, said there was no requirement that the public be informed ahead of time.

“As a regulator, the state doesn’t have any concerns for this material from a health and safety standpoint,” T.R. Wentworth II, manager of Michigan’s Radiological Protection Section, told the Detroit Free Press.