VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A Wayne County judge has permanently blocked radioactive waste from Manhattan Project-era sites from being shipped to the Wayne Disposal landfill in Van Buren Township, handing a major victory to local communities that spent nearly two years fighting the shipments.

Radioactive waste risks too great for Wayne County landfill.

Wayne Circuit Court Judge Kevin Cox ruled that accepting additional TENORM (Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material) from federal cleanup sites would create an unreasonable risk to public health and the environment, making a previous preliminary injunction permanent.

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Cox concluded the landfill’s safeguards were not sufficient to eliminate concerns about potential impacts on nearby waterways, including Belleville Lake, the Huron River and Lake Erie.

Communities score victory.

The legal battle began in 2024 when plans emerged to transport contaminated material from a Niagara Falls Storage Site in New York – part of the federal cleanup of Manhattan Project-era nuclear sites – to Wayne Disposal. Communities including Belleville, Canton Township, Romulus and Van Buren Township sued to stop the shipments.

Republic Services, which owns Wayne Disposal, says the facility is designed to safely handle such waste and has announced plans to appeal the ruling.