Washtenaw County is becoming increasingly divided with pockets of extreme wealth offset by pockets of extreme poverty. I attended today’s Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees meeting. One of the items up for discussion was the planned disposal of radioactive waste at Wayne Disposal.
If you haven’t been paying attention, Wayne Disposal is a dump in Wayne County – Van Buren Township to be exact – that can store low-level radioactive waste. The waste in question is scheduled to come from New York and consists of contaminated soil and debris from a Manhattan Project site. The significance of this whole tragic episode is that the Manhattan Project officially terminated in 1947. Radioactive waste generated eight decades ago is supposed to come to Wayne County.
Why do we – in Washtenaw County – care? For starters, the planned transportation route for all this waste goes through Washtenaw County – right up I-94. Through eastern Washtenaw County neighborhoods and into Wayne Disposal’s facility. (The facility sits on the county line.)
New York doesn’t want the materials, which have remained unmoved for the last 77 years, sitting quietly, not going away. Somehow, after eighty years, it’s better to ship this toxic waste off to Michigan than it is to cap and store the waste there. New York argues that the waste poses a hazard to the residents of Lewiston, NY. As if the residents of Southeast Michigan are somehow better equipped to manage exposure to radiation and all of its attendant risks.
Wayne Disposal and its dump pose a quality of life issue to the residents of western Wayne County. They also pose the same issues for eastern Washtenaw County because the only difference between western Wayne County and eastern Washtenaw County is a line on a map.
Don’t accept poverty: eliminate it
Poor housing, poor roads, poor schools. When poverty concentrates, the area becomes a literal dumping ground. Why not? Nothing’s ever going to come of poor neighborhoods, right? Apparently, it’s ok to put radioactive waste from a derelict government project in poor neighborhoods in Michigan, so people in neighborhoods 325 miles away can sleep better at night.
Maybe it’s better not to create poor neighborhoods in the first place. Countering poverty with investment, education, and economic development can make these vulnerable neighborhoods less likely to attract more poverty. Less likely to attract operations that guarantee the surrounding neighborhoods will never rise above the station in life that someone else assigned to them. Less likely to remain permanently poor.
The ultimate destination of the Manhattan Project’s radioactive trash isn’t Ypsilanti Township, but it’s so uncomfortably close to YTown that the Board voted to give $5,000 to help cover legal fees.
This could be a long, expensive fight – one that $5,000 isn’t going to fix. And don’t read too much into the $5,000. A good lawyer can earn $5,000 from a client by lunchtime on any given day. But Ypsilanti Township is one of five locales in Washtenaw County that hasn’t quite recovered yet from the Great Recession. When adjusted for inflation, its tax base is worth $365M less today than it was two decades ago. So, while the $5,000 is probably more symbolic than substantive, you should interpret it as an indication of how tight things have gotten in eastern Washtenaw County.
It’s why we need to work much harder to eliminate poverty in Washtenaw County rather than designating spaces for it. Remember, the only real difference between Van Buren Township and Ypsilanti Township is a line on a map.
Photo Credit: Manchester City Library , via Flickr
