Sunday, December 17, 1995
By Said Deep
Detroit Journal Staff Writer
A 3-year-old fight over a hazardous waste well in Romulus has spilled into neighboring Taylor.
After years of eyeing Romulus' bitter battle to stop Environmental Disposal Systems (EDS) from opening a deep injection well near I-275 and I-94, some Taylor residents have taken up the fight.
Their interest is motivated more out of necessity than solidarity with neighbors, Taylor resident Deidre Joanisse said, since EDS now plans a second well northwest of Inkster and Wick roads near the Taylor city limits.
Deep injection wells are designed to allow pumping of hazardous waste into the earth under the water table and are widely used by chemical companies and other industries on their own property. EDS hopes to open the first such commercial well in Michigan.
"There is no telling where this waste will go once it is pumped into the ground," said Joanisse, who lives less than a mile from the proposed site. "The possibilities for a catastrophe are endless."
EDS contends there is little danger, because the wastes are to be injected under pressure below the water table.
Joanisse and others want residents to attend a Taylor City Council meeting Tuesday to pressure city leaders to halt the new well. In addition to health concerns, Joanisse and others worry the 4,020-foot-deep well will ravage property values near the site.
Birmingham-based EDS has been fighting to open a deep injection well in Romulus since 1992 and said it has invested more than $2 million in the well, drilled two years ago.
Romulus blocked use of the well in court by charging that EDS failed to get proper zoning approval. EDS officials said they will continue to fight, doing everything necessary to win.
Taylor Mayor William Oakley, who was sworn in Monday after defeating incumbent Beverly McAnally, an outspoken EDS critic, said if the city can't stop the well from opening, it should consider negotiating a settlement with EDS.
"It is a bad deal for the city, but if we can't keep it from opening, we ought to negotiate some type of settlement, so we have some say and control of it," he said.
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