In a bid to halt the expansion of the Arbor Hills landfill, Northville Township residents and local leaders convened at a town hall last night. The controversial conversation, centered around the landfill's proposed growth in Washtenaw County, focused on the community's opposition to the new landfill potentially being constructed just across the street from the existing facility on Napier Rd, between 5 Mile and 6 Mile.
Citizens have raised concerns about increased noise from trucks and odor issues. Allison Subotich, a resident living near the current Arbor Hills Landfill, expressed her discontent, as per WXYZ: "I do have a hard time with the smell." She posed the expansion's implications on the community, worrying about "more trucks and smells coming from there." GFL Environmental, the landfill owner, has sought to expand after estimating that only five to seven years of storage space will remain at their current site. Meanwhile, Salem Township officials have proposed using a 240-acre plot owned by GFL for the new landfill.
David Drinan, vice president of the Conservancy Initiative, underscored the potential detrimental effects of accepting Canadian waste and the operation of the landfill on the local road infrastructure and environment. In a discussion cited by CBS News Detroit, Drinan emphasized the pressing decisions faced by the community, "This is really a once-in-a-generation decision that the community has to make," and pointed out the landfill's history of contributing to road deterioration and leaking harmful PFAS chemicals.
During the town hall, City of Northville Mayor Brian Turnbull addressed the broad implications of constructing a landfill next to a source of pure water, emphasizing its importance to the wider region. Turnbull said, per ClickOnDetroit: "We have some of the purest water in all of southeastern Michigan going all the way into Northville, the rouge and Detroit river into the Great Lakes, the largest body of fresh water in the world, we don’t really need a landfill right next to it." The sentiment shared at the meeting was clear. According to The Conservancy Initiative, the community does not see the need for another landfill, especially given that most waste comes from outside the county, with some hailing from as far as Canada.
