April 22, 2005

The Department of Environmental Quality announced today that it has begun taking action to revoke the air use permit for Michigan Waste Services for its medical waste incinerator located in Hamtramck. The decision was reached after careful consideration of comments received during the public comment period and hearings, and MWS’ past performance at the site.

“This company has not demonstrated the effort to comply with the same environmental safeguards that all other businesses in Michigan operate under,” said G. Vinson Hellwig, Chief of the DEQ’s Air Quality Division and decision maker on the permit revocation.

The DEQ received a number of comments from neighboring residents expressing their concerns about the company throughout the public comment period. The company was given an opportunity to respond during a Show Cause Hearing and the public comment period, but did not demonstrate a commitment to comply with the conditions in their current permit. Additionally, a former employee of the company testified under oath that some of the facility’s required documents had been falsified.

The DEQ will now file a petition for a contested case hearing to revoke MWS’ permit to install. An administrative law judge will issue a Proposal for Decision after hearing all of the evidence and testimony from both the DEQ and the company.

Editor’s note: DEQ news releases are available on the department’s Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq. 

Revised April 22, 2005 by Alice Stimpson acting for Pat Watson