Tragic Consequences to Pay-to-Play Politics in Wayne County, Michigan

Below is an example of pay-to-play politics in Lansing, leading to environmental damage, anxiety for neighboring property owners, loss of millions in pension funds, and incalculable clean-up costs.

 

This is the story of a businessman who wanted to place a Class 1 toxic waste disposal site in Wayne County, the most populous county in Michigan. The hazardous toxic sludge would be pumped deep into the ground and presumably be safely contained for thousands of years. This “deep injection well” would be located within 10 miles of the Detroit River that feeds the lower Great Lakes.

Local residents and environmentalists desperately fought the project, questioning the geologic stability of below-ground storage and the need for such a disposal site since a similar site, located in Ohio, was operating far below capacity.

To facilitate the approval and operation of the toxic dump site, the businessman forms a Political Action Committee (PAC) in Lansing, and recognizing that politicians may resist taking money from the “Toxic Dump PAC”, he deceptively labeled it “Citizens for Clean Water” to which only he contributed.

To further obscure the connection between the toxic disposal company and the Clean Water PAC, in official documents the businessman listed his employment not as the toxic waste company executive, but as the President of a legislator’s PAC, However, after this newspaper ad appeared, the businessman filed a “corrected” document the very next day.

The story does not end there. After operating for only 10 months a routine inspection by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality found toxic chemicals leaking from a pipeline at the site, and ordered the site closed. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) undertakes a thorough review of the toxic dump, finding numerous violations, including that tests to insure that toxic chemicals were not entering the ground water had not been conducted. The EPA fined and withdrew the company’s permit to operate. The businessman who ran the company transferred ownership, dissolved the “Citizens for Clean Water PAC”, and apparently left the state.

The toxic dump, located just south of I-94 near Detroit Metropolitan Airport (see satellite image), now sits in limbo. Taxpayers will likely bear the costs of toxic cleap-up. The major investor in the toxic disposal company was the Detroit Police and Fire Pension Fund, whose only hope for recouping its $30 million investment involves having a new company permitted to resume operating the site. Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, arguing against renewing the permit, cited the company’s “…egregious and flagrant violation of the law, underscoring their complete disregard for public health and environmental safety.”

Next time a politician tells you: “Don’t worry, I take lobbyist’s money only from ‘good’ people,” ask them if they mean groups like the “Citizens for Clean Water”.

The most thorough account of the battle over this toxic disposal site, although somewhat dated now, was in the Metro Times in 2002, a link to which is provided here.

If you agree that this episode is outrageous and demands that citizens take action, here are four actions you can take now to help elect a candidate dedicated to changing the culture that makes "Citizens for Clean Water" possible:

1. Sign-up HERE for our list of volunteers in your community.

2. Sign-up HERE to request a yard sign.

3. Send an email to your friends and neighbors alerting them about this tragedy by clicking HERE

4. Find information HERE on making a contribution to our citizen-funded campaign. We very much need your financial support since we accept no lobbyist PAC contributions from groups like the "Citizens for Clean Water."