LANSING — State Representative Sarah Roberts (D-St. Clair Shores) today applauded and thanked the Detroit City Council for passing Councilmember Raquel Castaneda-Lopez’s (District 6) resolution strongly opposing Canada’s plan to build a deep geologic repository (DGR) for nuclear waste close to Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada. The council approved the resolution at their May 19 meeting.
“The Detroit City Council Members have shown tremendous leadership in our fight to stop this nuclear waste site that poses a great risk to the public’s health and to the drinking water for millions of Michiganders,” said Roberts. “There are millions of residents on both sides of the border that would suffer if this site is built and were to one day leak. Problems at the site could devastate our communities and our economy by harming our agriculture and tourism industries.”
The deep geologic repository, or long-term storage site, would store low and intermediate levels of radioactive waste less than a mile from Lake Huron’s Canadian shore and only 440 yards below lake level.
The resolution passed by the Detroit City Council is the latest of 155 resolutions passed in both Canada and the United States opposing the repository. These resolutions represent over 21 million people. U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and U.S. Representative Dan Kildee (D-MI) have also introduced resolutions against the repository in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives with the support of other Michigan and Great Lakes states legislators.
“I thank Councilmember Castaneda-Lopez for standing up to protect the residents of Detroit and millions of others by introducing this resolution. A final decision on the DGR hasn’t been made, so it is still possible to make our collective voices of opposition heard,” said Roberts. “The Great Lakes, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River are too important to the public health and the economy here in Southeast Michigan and Canada to not challenge the wisdom of building this so close to the lake.”
Current Michigan law prohibits the disposal of radioactive waste at any site within 10 miles of the Great Lakes and certain other major bodies of water connected to them.