The ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Cox marks the culmination of a year-long legal fight over whether the Republic Services-owned landfill could continue receiving shipments of elevated radiation waste from sites managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The one-page order makes permanent a preliminary injunction that had been in place since Aug. 6, 2025, after Wayne County and several local governments, including Van Buren Township, sued to block the deliveries.
“Acceptance of any additional FUSRAP TENORM at the WDI Landfill facility would unreasonably interfere with rights common to the public and therefore constitutes a public nuisance,” Cox wrote in the order. He added that the harms from the waste are long-lasting or permanent and cannot be offset with monetary damages, and that the monitoring and engineering controls at the landfill are insufficient.
The waste in question is known as technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material, or TENORM, generated during the cleanup of former Manhattan Project sites under the Army Corps’ FUSRAP program. The Wayne Disposal facility, located about 30 miles west of Detroit, is one of the nation’s largest hazardous waste disposal sites.
Wayne County and the communities that brought the lawsuit had argued that the landfill’s engineering controls were inadequate to contain the waste’s long-term risks to public health and the environment. The court agreed, finding that the potential harms are irreparable and that monetary compensation cannot remedy them.
Republic Services, which owns the landfill, defended the facility’s safety record during the litigation but did not immediately announce whether it would appeal the decision.