Michigan lawmakers reintroduce legislation to raise landfill tipping fees

Michigan legislators reintroduced legislation that would raise landfill fees in Michigan to $5, WILX 10 reports.

Michigan has some of the lowest dumping fees in the nation at 36 cents a ton. The bill would require the $5 fee to be reassessed every five years.

The bill is an effort to prevent other states from dumping waste, including radioactive waste, in the state. The legislation was initially introduced last legislative session to block radioactive waste from a Manhattan Project waste storage site in New York state from entering a landfill in Van Buren Township.

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“It’s time to introduce legislation and pass legislation that will protect Michigan, protect our waterways,” Romulus Mayor Robert McCraight says. “I keep saying that this is a regional issue. We’ve had three train derailments in the Romulus and Vanburn area within a span of 24 months. Two of which contained hazardous material. So, if it passes through your community, it’s your issue as well. We need to stop Michigan from being a for-hire hazardous material dumping ground for the rest of the United States.”

Republican state representative Jim DeSana responded, saying he feels tipping fees should apply strictly to radioactive waste and not to all landfill waste.

“I don’t want the radioactive material as well, I just don’t think this is the answer to that problem," DeSana says. "The radioactive waste issue is specific to Belleville VanBuren Township, and raising the tipping fees across the entire state of Michigan for residential trash and other classifications to try to get to the radioactive waste is not the way to do this. I’d like to see us just raise the tipping fees on radioactive waste.”