Editorial: Radioactive waste issue brings swirl of activity, law suit

Over the past two weeks or so, the passion over the radioactive waste coming to town has been gathering steam and on Monday the paperwork was filed for a restraining order against Republic Waste.
Mayor Voigt announced the filing at Monday’s regular city council meeting. He said Belleville and Canton were the main filers because Van Buren Township found they had a contract with Republic and couldn’t lead the pack.
VBT, Belleville, and Sumpter all had special meetings to discuss the filing and Belleville pledged $5,000 of the cost and said others involved would pay that amount, too, with VBT picking up the rest of the cost. Also part of the filing were Romulus and the VBT fire chief.
Mayor Voigt attended State Rep. Reggie Miller’s press conference last week to support her bill based on a New York law against radioactive waste and then the mayor went to Mackinac Island to seek support of lobbyists at the Michigan Municipal League conference. Then he came back early to meet with Conference of Western Wayne officials on Friday along with VBT Supervisor McNamara to get the 16 CWW members involved. And, they are reaching out to downriver groups. Also, an energetic group of residents has sprung up to support all their efforts. City manager Smith said there is a question of whether Republic’s hazardous material license expired in 2021 which should help with a judge’s decision on the litigation. Keep watch as the issue unfolds.