Hazardous Waste Deep Injection Well in Romulus

As humans have produced more and more waste, an issue of growing importance has been where to dispose of it. One method of disposing of hazardous waste has been the deep injection well. The are approximately 4,500 feet deep and about 96 million gallons of hazardous waste can be injected into them a year. There are currently 172 of these deep injection wells in the United States, with a new one being proposed for Romulus, Michigan. The Romulus well would be Michigan's ninth.

There are many hazards associated with these wells. Twenty-two out of the 172 wells in America have leaked or suffered holes and workers were unable to detect substantial leakage from holes in well casing in six other situations. Greenpeace has stated that "in at least 2 states, deep well injection of hazardous wastes has been linked to multiple earthquakes, caused by elevated pressures and reduced friction over large areas...Injected wastes have entered groundwater through cracks, fissures, and abandoned oil and gas wells in the U.S."

The environmental organization Romulus Environmentalists Care About People (RECAP) has lead the opposition to the injection well in Romulus. This group makes many statements about the detrimental effect the well would have on the city. Among other things, the group claims the well would contain 96 million gallons of hazardous waste a year that would be serviced by 19,200 trucks. Not only American hazardous waste, but also Canadian would be stored there and Canadians would own 20% of the well. The EPA and Michigan Department of Natural Resources would not have the funds or the manpower to regulate it such a commercial facility. The lack of regulations may allow the well to grow out of control. The well would be located less than 500 yards from a residential neighborhood. The group also states the facility would attract other waste facilities to Romulus and cause reduced property values. RECAP also cited the failure of a similar injection well in Vickery, Ohio, in which owners recently paid out 30 million dollars worth of claims to property owners within a five mile radius of the well. There have been numerous other documented failures of injection wells throughout the country.

In June of 1994, Romulans voted on whether or not to levy one mil to set up an environmental protection fund which would thwart any efforts to locate a hazardous waste injection well within the city. The proposal lost 2,000 votes to 929. Residents did not want the injection well, but they did not want to pay the mil for protecting against it either. As the environmental justice movement grows in the next few years, residents such as those in Romulus will have to decide between the negative side-effects of the lack of regard for the environment by industry and the costs of fixing or preventing these problems.

Source: Melissa Marra. "Downriver Digest." July/August 1994.

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