Manhattan Project waste shipments to Wayne County landfill continue despite court order

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to send waste from two Manhattan Project-era sites to a landfill in western Wayne County despite an Aug. 6 injunction barring the shipment of radioactive waste from these sites. 

Waste is being shipped from the Corps’ Luckey and Harshaw sites to Wayne Disposal, Republic Services Manager of Strategic Services Hans Honerlah testified Tuesday during a bench trial of a lawsuit that seeks to block radioactive shipments to the landfill. Republic Services owns the Van Buren Township facility. 

The waste being sent to Wayne Disposal is not TENORM —Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material — a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson  told Planet Detroit Tuesday. 

The sites Honerlah named are in Ohio and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).

In an Aug. 6 order granting a preliminary injunction in the case, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Cox said: “It is in the best interest of the public health to prevent any shipments of FUSRAP TENORM into the WDI facility. Even though such waste has been taken to the WDI facility in the past, increasing the volume of waste disposed of at the landfill increases the risk to public health proportionally.”

It’s unclear whether the shipments from the Army Corps to Wayne Disposal that have occurred since Aug. 6 will run afoul of Cox’s order. 

Theresa Bodwin, an attorney representing intervenor Wayne County, asked Honerlah during cross-examination Tuesday how Wayne Disposal determined it could accept the waste under the TENORM definition that’s included in Cox’s August injunction.

“TENORM, by definition, means that the waste is technologically enhanced … in that it truly increases the potential for exposures that are harmful to humans and the environment,” Bodwin said, paraphrasing the definition from the court order.

Honerlah said the waste that’s being accepted by Wayne Disposal does not meet Michigan’s criteria for TENORM.

This definition excludes radium under 5 picocuries per gram, Honerlah said, adding that waste from the Luckey site was shipped to Wayne Disposal because it contains hazardous material — not because it’s TENORM.

The material contained background levels of radium, he said.

Republic spokesperson Melissa Quillard told Planet Detroit in a Tuesday statement that Wayne Disposal is operating in compliance with the August injunction.

Andrew Kornacki, spokesperson for the Army Corps’ Buffalo District, said shipments from the Luckey and Harshaw sites do not contain TENORM.

The Army Corps is not a party to the lawsuit and it would be inappropriate for it to comment on the specifics of the litigation, Kornacki said.

Facility at landfill site ‘downblending’ higher radiation waste

The legal battle over the shipments began in 2024 when news broke that the Army Corps planned to transport elevated radiation waste from the Niagara Falls Storage Site in Lewiston, New York to Wayne Disposal. 

Belleville, Van Buren Township, Canton Township, Romulus, and the Van Buren Township fire chief filed suit in September 2024 to stop the shipments, and Wayne County intervened in the case.

On Tuesday, Bodwin said radioactive waste is being “downblended” with other material at the Michigan Disposal Waste Treatment Plant to allow for disposal. 

Republic also owns Michigan Disposal, which operates within Wayne Disposal’s footprint.

Republic’s Honerlah said Michigan Disposal has downblended elevated radiation waste that is not from Army Corps FUSRAP sites.

On Monday, Sylwia Scott, an environmental compliance manager for Republic, said the Michigan Disposal facility could downblend FUSRAP material if it wished to do so.  

Honerlah said the highest level of radiation downblended at Michigan Disposal was waste from an Illinois water treatment facility that contained radium-226 levels of around 1,500 picocuries per gram.

Michigan bars the disposal of TENORM with radium-226 above 50 picocuries, a level that could be achieved by downblending.

Michigan Disposal can downblend radiation at levels up to 2,000 picocuries per gram, Honerlah said. 

Bodwin asked if Michigan Disposal has ever performed an internal dose assessment at the facility.

Honerlah said he is unaware whether such a dose assessment has been performed or if one was sent to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

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