Regulators revisit concerns about Dow’s dioxin pollution
December 31, 2008
By Michael Hawthorne
Chicago Tribune

More than three decades after Dow Chemical Co. was blamed for some of the worst dioxin contamination in history, federal regulators are meeting with the company yet again about cleaning up polluted waterways in eastern Michigan.

Though some hope the closed-door talks could kick-start a long-awaited cleanup, environmental advocates fear they will lead only to more delays. The Chicago Tribune reported in May that a regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was fired after she cut off similar negotiations with Dow, saying they were going nowhere.

“In my experience, Dow only enters into negotiations if they can cut a better deal for themselves, not the environment,” said Mary Gade, who was the Bush administration’s top environmental official in Chicago before tangling with Dow on the dioxin issue.

Meanwhile, advocates say, thousands of people remain at risk from highly toxic and persistent chemicals that are linked to cancer and other health problems.

For most of the past century, Dow dumped dioxin into rivers near its sprawling chemical plant in Midland, Mich., creating 50 miles of polluted waterways that empty into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. The pollutant was a manufacturing byproduct of the Vietnam-era herbicide Agent Orange and other chlorinated chemicals.

Dioxin is so toxic that it is measured in trillionths of a gram, and concerns about dioxin contamination were behind two of the most infamous environmental disasters in U.S. history — the evacuations of the Love Canal neighborhood in upstate New York and the entire town of Times Beach, Mo.

But cleanup remains stalled in the Saginaw area, mainly because Dow asserts the contamination does not threaten people or wildlife.

Last year, officials at the EPA and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said the best course of action was to have Dow clean up the area under the terms of an existing state agreement, which took effect in 2003 after more than a decade of negotiations.

Now the two agencies say the cleanup would be faster and more comprehensive if Dow agreed to a different set of rules similar to the federal Superfund program.

“This is a directional change,” said Richard Karl, director of the EPA’s regional Superfund office. “But we strongly believe we’ll get a cleanup going sooner than later this way.”

Though federal and state officials vowed that any proposed agreement would be subject to public scrutiny, environmental groups said guidelines for the new talks circumvent stronger requirements contained in the federal Superfund law.

“Here we go again,” said Michelle Hurd Riddick, a Saginaw nurse and member of the Lone Tree Council, a local environmental group.

Officials said it is highly unlikely a deal will be brokered before the Bush administration leaves office Jan. 20.

Though regulators linked the dioxin contamination to Dow decades ago, cleanup had been minimal until Gade stepped in.

In 2007, she ordered the immediate removal of dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment after high levels of the chemical were found in three areas near the Dow plant and in a residential area and public park some 20 miles away.

In the residential area, one sample of household dust had dioxin levels of 3,000 parts per trillion, three times higher than the federal cleanup standard. Levels in the yards were as high as 23,000 parts per trillion and averaged 2,000 parts per trillion.

Gade abruptly ended negotiations with Dow nearly a year ago, accusing the company of failing to take steps necessary to protect public health. When she later was ousted from her job, she said it was because she was too tough on Dow.

Dow officials have resisted attempts to extend the cleanup farther away from their plant into Saginaw Bay. Citing the work ordered by the EPA, a company spokesman said Dow will restore polluted areas but contests how it should be done.

“We’re moving at an extremely fast pace,” said John Musser, the Dow spokesman.