Wayne Disposal permits to be OK’d if all state, federal laws followed

Christine Matlock, the Michigan Department of Environmental, Great Lakes, and Energy permit engineer for the Wayne Disposal license renewal and expansion as a toxic waste landfill, told the crowd at the June 26 public meeting that its requests are likely to be granted.
She said the landfill on the North I-94 Service Drive has been there a long time and has evolved over time, meeting state and federal requirements.
“If it meets requirements, we are not allowed to not issue the permit,” she said.
Matlock led the five-person panel who answered questions for more than an hour at Wayne County Community College’s meeting room in Van Buren Township. The meeting was zoomed live to those at home, as well.
Matlock said the operating license renewal application was submitted by the landfill in November 2021 and it was not held up by the landfill.
She said it requests vertical expansion, expansion from 22.5 million cubic yards to 27.6 million cubic yards, a new storage area for waste prior to disposal of 500,000 gallons, and treatment.
She said the process for approval is the technical review, public comment and a hearing, review of comments, and the final decision to approve or deny, which she said could come by the end of the calendar year, possibly late summer.
Lisa Graczyk, Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 permit writer, said EGLE issues a permit and the EPA issues another permit concerning PCBs in the landfill and has been since 1997. She said their most recent request comes with a change in design.
The first hour of the public meeting was an open time for people to talk to officials and each other. The next hour started with comments from Matlock and Graczyk and then a microphone was carried around the room to people who raised their hands wishing to comment or ask questions.
First to speak was Alvin Briges who serves on the Belleville Planning Commission. He asked what if an airplane crashed in the toxic landfill or a tornado hit. He was told there is a contingency plan in place.
A man who said he lives in Van Buren Township asked how much higher they want to go with the landfill and he was told 140 feet is now allowed.
The request involves a vertical expansion “to fill in a low spot in the existing landfill footprint” that’s now allowable because of the closure of a runway at the neighboring Willow Run Airport, company spokeswoman Melissa Quillard earlier told the Free Press.
The vertical expansion wasn’t previously allowable because of regulations regarding that runway’s flight path, she said.
Detroit media stirred up local residents in February 2023 when it said waste from a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was being trucked in to Wayne Disposal without local knowledge. The EPA did redirect that waste to a landfill in another state.
Again last fall the media claimed the soil and concrete from the cleanup of the Manhattan Project in New York, which worked on the atomic bomb during and after World War II, came without notice to local officials.
Recent testimony in a related court case, however, showed that the Van Buren Township supervisor was sent an email, along with others, and the Independent printed information on the project, as well.
Wayne Disposal, owned by Republic Services based in Phoenix, is licensed to receive 722 different types of hazardous waste, compounds not suitable for disposal in a conventional landfill.
It is one of only 12 landfills in the U.S. licensed to receive PCBs, and the only such facility in the Midwest.
Chris Donley, spoke from the audience to say that EGLE’s Materials Management Division rules, taking effect this January, say a hazardous waste applicant is required to submit an environmental justice analysis as part of its application. EGLE said it would look into that.
Donley of Van Buren Township, who serves on the Belleville Downtown Development Authority, is a leader of the Michigan Against Atomic Waste group working against the landfill’s expansion.
When asked by others about the level of radiation at the landfill, Matlock said the normal level is 0.4 in a home and 0.41 at this landfill.
She said if people have unanswered questions, they are invited to email the officials and they will answer publicly.
Matlock’s email is: MatlockC2@Michigan.gov or EGLE-MMD-HWS@Michigan.gov .