Willow Run-Area Hazardous Waste Landfill Expanding

VAN BUREN TWP. (WWJ/AP) - A 55-year-old hazardous waste landfill in southeastern Michigan is expanding over the next year.

The 500-acre Environmental Quality Wayne Disposal Center opened in 1957 in Wayne County's Van Buren Township, next to Willow Run Airport off the I-94 Service Drive.

Because of Federal Aviation Administration rules, the landfill cannot expand any higher. Instead, the expansion is taking place on the remaining 58 acres that it has not yet used.

Company spokesman Bob Doyle said that the landfill will cease accepting waste after the final section is filled out, and the facility will then manage what waste is there.

"We've got a lot of positive feedback," Doyle told AnnArbor.com. "Of course no one wants hazardous waste in their backyard, but I think people know that in the society we live in today this type of waste has to go somewhere."

The landfill takes waste containing dangerous materials such as heavy metals. Most of the waste it receives comes from clean-up projects for industrial waste. No nuclear waste or radioactive waste of any degree is accepted.

Doyle said the waste sits on an about 10-foot-thick retention system that includes layers of packed clay, synthetic liners and a drainage system.

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