Wayne Co. board to reconsider thinner landfill liner

A tour of the Carleton Farms Landfill helped convince several Wayne County Commissioners to support a thinner landfill liner as part of a $53-million expansion at the site.

Commissioners in a Public Services Committee meeting today approved the measure. It will be sent to the full commission July 1.

The issue had been before the full commission in May but was sent back to committee after Commissioner Tim Killeen, D-Detroit, raised concerns. Killeen was the lone voice against moving the issue forward, saying the additional $1-million cost for the thicker liner would not put Republic Services — a $9-billion company — out of business.

Republic Services, which owns the landfill on Clark Road in rural Sumpter Township bordering Washtenaw and Monroe counties, currently uses an 80-mil thick liner, but wants to use a 60-mil liner on the 200-acre expansion. A mil is a thousandth of an inch.

Commissioner Diane Webb, D-Livonia, who chairs the committee, arranged a tour on Friday of the landfill and nearby Crosswinds Marsh, which Sumpter Township's website calls "one of the largest manmade wetlands in the country."

"I think we're in a better position to make an educated decision on this," Webb said, noting that Republic had provided considerable information and that the 60-mil liner is considered the standard nationwide. "You need a microscope to see the difference (in the liner thickness). ... I don't feel we're compromising the integrity of the liner."

Republic has raised issues of fairness and cost competition in its request for the thinner landfill liner, saying other landfills, including the company's Sauk Trail Hills Landfill in Canton, use the thinner liner.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com or on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence