Dive Brief:

• Wayne Disposal Inc., a landfill in Van Buren Township, MI, withdrew a request that would have increased the site’s accepted radiation limits.
• The operators of the site, USEcology, were seeking to increase the levels to then times the current threshold.
• The site made headlines when it agreed to dispose of 36 tons of radioactive waste that have been making the rounds from state to state as multiple landfills refused to accept it.

Dive Insight:

The waste in question was produced from fracking at a site in Pennsylvania. The sludge was initially refused after “heightened radiation” was detected, and then delivered to a site in West Virginia because it was the closest facility with the appropriate permits.

The West Virginia DEP originally approved the waste, but in a surprise twist, the sludge was brought to the MI landfill for disposal.