Van Buren Public Schools Superintendent Peter Kudlak has concerns about toxic waste approved by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration for a Wayne County landfill just blocks from a middle school.

“If things do happen, that could be leaking into the groundwater, so it’s making sure our water is tested and safe,” Kudlak told WXYZ.

“The lake as you can see is right here,” he said pointing to Belleville Lake just south of the facility, “which is a freshwater lake that feeds a lot of communities, and we have schools all around it.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Kudlak added that one of the schools, a recently renovated McBride Middle School, is “just a few blocks away.”

The superintendent acknowledged state and company officials have assured residents that the 6,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste coming to the Wayne Disposal site left over from atomic bomb making during World War II doesn’t pose a threat to the community, “but that doesn’t stop us from being concerned and making sure things are going to continue to be alright,” he said.

Kudlak is among countless residents, local and state officials, and others who are raising the alarm about the plans from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to transfer the toxic soil, along with 4,000 gallons of contaminated ground water, from a Niagara Falls storage site used to refine uranium ore for atomic bombs.

About 25 semi-trucks a week will dump the radioactive material through January 2025 as part of a plan approved by Whitmer’s Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy that blindsided state and county officials.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

The revelation follows fierce public backlash over a similar secret transfer of toxic materials to the site from a trail derailment in East Palestine, Ohio in 2023.

“We were all shocked and quite disappointed and pretty much enraged that, again, we’re having toxic waste go through the streets of Wayne County,” Wayne County Commission Chair Alisha Bell told WJBK. “Unfortunately, they don’t have to confer, inform, or ask for permission if those toxic chemicals are brought to Wayne County, that’s a decision from EGLE and Army Corps of Engineers.”

“Of course no one wants that in their backyard, we get that,” Bell said. “But we have to look at a place that makes it a little bit more reasonable than the highest populated county in the state.”

Republicans in the Michigan Legislature chided EGLE last September when the department renewed an operations permit for facility despite strong public opposition to the East Palestine transfer that ultimately convinced officials to ship the material elsewhere.

“After the situation in East Palestine, families in our area were clear – the communities we call home should not be a dumping ground for toxic waste from other states,” state Rep. Jamie Thompson, R-Brownstown, said in September.

“I’m deeply disappointed in EGLE’s tone-deaf decision to extend this permit. While Gov. Whitmer’s administration continues to use our region to put hazardous materials in the ground, the facts on the ground do not support this move. There have been significant transparency and safety issues involving this site and public opposition has not been respected.”

That was evident when the Army Corps confirmed the latest transfer of radioactive waste to the Detroit Free Press last week.

“I was not aware of this, nor was I alerted. That’s frustrating,” Rep. Reggie Miller, D-Van Buren Township, told the news site. “I’m not happy about that, to say the very least.”

Miller and others are particularly concerned about transporting the materials on public roads, and the potential for catastrophe.

“That’s always been my issue – what happens if that semi overturns and it goes into water?” she said. “We have the largest lake in Wayne County (Belleville Lake) and that’s always been a concern.”

Many others are concerned, as well.

“Who benefits from accepting and storing toxic waste? Republic Services, Van Buren Township, State of Michigan? Certainly, it isn’t our residents. Please do whatever you can to stop this,” Bernice Lindke, a local resident, told Wayne County commissioners during a public discussion on Tuesday.

“I think we have to eliminate financial incentives for these companies to use Michigan as their dumping ground,” Wayne County Commissioner Glenn Anderson said.

In the meantime, Republic Services, the company that owns Wayne Disposal, as well as officials with the Army Corps and EGLE are promising everything will be fine.

“The material from the Niagara Falls Storage Site is within the permitted guidelines and will be managed safely, responsibly and in compliance with all local, state and federal regulations,” Republic Services wrote in a statement to WJBK.

“The first thing we look at in all of these projects is how we can do it safely – from the employees on-site who are working around the material, excavating it and preparing it for removal, to the communities around the site, to the folks who are going to transport it out to Belleville, Michigan, to where it can be safely stored,” Avery Schneider, the Corps’ deputy chief of public affairs, told the Free Press.

T.R. Wentworth II, manager of the Radiological Protection Section at EGLE’s Materials Management Division, told the news site the toxic dirt and water heading to the Wayne County landfill will have radioactivity levels 50 times higher than the natural environment.

“As a regulator, the state doesn’t have any concerns for this (Niagara site) material from a health and safety standpoint,” he said, noting the radiation level falls below state and federal regulations.