Tittabawassee River Watch Editorial
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Marcia Woodman, 04/04/08, Letter to the editor, Saginaw News
Don't blame the environmentalists
Regarding the Chamber of Commerce president's My View, ''River cleanup lies
in facts not emotion,'' trying to make the environmental community out to be the
fall guy in the dioxin controversy is absurd.
Are the chamber and its membership aware that more than 300 residents signed on
to be represented in the class action against Dow Chemical Co. for putting
dioxin on our properties and altering how many of us use and view our property
and the river outside our door?
We talk with the regulatory agencies, and we attend the meetings. Many of us,
frustrated as we are at times with the snail's pace on cleanup, realize that Dow
has created most of the delays. The chamber just wants to manipulate this issue,
change the focus and make it look like a handful of people are out to villainize
Dow. Frankly, Dow is its own worst enemy; creating delays, running from agency
to agency, university to university to avoid responsibility.
It's time for the Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of
Environmental Quality to write Dow's cleanup plan for them. Dow has shown itself
to be irresponsible with its contamination as well as its willingness to clean
it up.
The chamber president stated the ''no individual has been ill due to the effects
of furans/dioxin in the Tittabawassee River.'' In the absence of any health
study or epidemiological study, I have no clue what he is basing his information
on. It does, however, call into question his other statement about the chamber
basing its positions on ''expert scientific studies.'' I am here to tell you
there have been no studies done to date to draw the conclusions that he puts
forth.
As a registered nurse, mother and river resident, I am not willing to be
placated by Dow's philanthropy nor am I going to be critical of the
''environmentalists'' for their commitment to our community and this river. I
applaud them.
Marcia Woodman
Tittabawassee Township
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