US stops hazardous waste shipments to Michigan from Ohio after court decision

DETROIT (AP) — The federal government has stopped sending hazardous waste to a Michigan landfill from Ohio, a ripple effect after a judge intervened in a different matter and suspended plans for waste shipments from New York state, officials said Friday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been trucking material from Luckey, Ohio, where beryllium, a toxic metal, was produced for weapons and other industrial uses after World War II. A cleanup has been ongoing for years.

Wayne Disposal in Van Buren County, 25 miles (40.23 kilometers) west of Detroit, is one of the few landfills in the U.S. that can handle certain hazardous waste.

“We are not currently shipping” from Ohio, said Avery Schneider, an Army Corps spokesman.

He said operations were paused after a Detroit-area judge temporarily stopped plans to send low-level radioactive waste from Lewiston, New York, to Wayne Disposal. Four nearby communities said they’re concerned about the risks of what would be placed there. A court hearing is set for Sept. 26.

The Army Corps also manages the Lewiston site. In reaction, it decided to halt waste shipments from Ohio “while we assess the judge’s order,” Schneider said.

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