Plan to re-open toxic waste wells near Metro Airport angers local officials

Romulus, Mich. (Source: Wikipedia)

ROMULUS — Just when opponents of toxic-waste wells thought they had won, the wells reared their heads again.

A Michigan-based company is seeking to reopen wells in Romulus that were closed in 2006 after leaking. Monday evening more than 80 people, including public officials and representatives from the governor’s office and Michigan’s congressional delegation, came to Romulus City Hall to rally opponents in the fight against reopening the wells.

Romulus Mayor Alan Lambert said there was no room for compromise.

“Obviously, we feel that it was proven that they were faulty,” he said. “I think it would be crazy for them to reopen the wells again.”

Environmental Geo-Technologies wants to operate the mile-deep wells, which can absorb more than 400,000 gallons of liquid waste a day. The wells would be used by companies in the U.S. and Canada.

Taylor Mayor Cameron Priebe said operating these toxic wells in Detroit’s Downriver suburbs is unjust and unfair.

“The reality is they don’t take these kind of things and site them in Bloomfield or Birmingham or wherever these rich investors live. They’re putting them in places like Taylor and Romulus and Ecorse and River Rouge, in poorer communities. That in itself isn’t fair,” Priebe said, adding that the area has its share of “undesirable” development like refineries, pipelines and Detroit Metro Airport.

Reopening the wells would also increase traffic to unacceptable levels along I-94 and Romulus streets and it would lower property values, Priebe said.

Before Environmental Geo-Technologies is given permission to run the wells, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) must decide whether to terminate the current operating permit belonging to Environmental Disposal Systems (EDS), which ran the wells before going out of business.

Attorney Neil Silver, who doesn’t want the wells to reopen, said at the meeting that opponents must press the department to revoke the operating permit from EDS. Once that’s done, a new company would have to go through the entire permitting process, not just be able to skip most of those steps and take over the operating permit from EDS, he said.

“If they have to apply for a new permit, they must start from scratch,” Silver said, adding that this would include going through the site review board, which includes representatives from the localities and local business, as well as scientific experts.

Opponents of the reopening of the wells want the Legislature to make the site review board’s recommendation binding on the DEQ. Currently, these are not binding.

To make sure DEQ hears opponents’ cases against keeping the permit active, public officials are encouraging Romulus residents to sign petitions and write to the governor’s office. People were also encouraged to jam-pack an April 23 meeting at Romulus High School concerning the matter.

Justin Miller is a political journalist based in Wayne County who has worked for Real Clear Politics, blogged for The Atlantic and covered the 2008 elections in Ohio for The New York Observer’s Politicker.com network of state politics news sites.