Michigan County Fights New Jersey Trash

Wendy Angel

Rockwood, Mich. – Michigan continues to fight out-of-state trash, this time battling New Jersey waste being shipped into Wayne County. Canadian National Railway Co., which started shipping waste to the county this month, is ignoring the county’s demand that it stop operations in its borders because its operations violate county solid waste ordinances. Canadian National claims that its special status as a railroad company means that it is exempt local laws.

The company ships up to 1,000 tons of demolition debris daily to Rockwood, Mich., where the waste is unloaded into trucks and shipped 10 miles to the Allied Waste-Rockwood Landfill. Rockwood is just 12 miles away from the Carleton Farms landfill in Sumpter Township, where Toronto ships up to 1 millions tons of waste each year.