Dow signs dioxin agreement; EPA, MDEQ taking public comments

By Tony Lascari tlascari@mdn.net  Midland Daily News
Published: Saturday, October 17, 2009 2:11 AM EDT

Members of the public have one month to comment on a proposed agreement to evaluate dioxin contamination in the Titabawassee River, Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay.

The proposal has been agreed to by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and The Dow Chemical Co. Dow released the toxic chemical byproduct in the watershed from its Michigan Operations site in Midland as part of its historic operations.

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The proposal does not include specific cleanup work to be done, but in it Dow agrees to develop a plan to determine the extent of contamination, develop cleanup options and evaluate the performance and costs of the various cleanup options. Dow also would devlop engineering plans for implementing the cleanup option chosen by the EPA.

Wendy Carney, with the EPA, said the proposed agreement would provide the next step toward physical work in the watershed.

“This is a big step forward in getting to the comprehensive cleanup we’ve been striving for at the site,” she said.

Dow spokeswoman Mary Draves said Dow’s leaders agreed to the proposal, which came about after months of negotiations.

“We covered a broad range of topics,” Draves said. “The agreement outlines the work we need to complete to understand the river system.”

A public comment period will occur from Monday through Nov. 17. The EPA and MDEQ will not sign the proposed agreement until after public comment is considered.

The EPA and MDEQ will host public meeting to discuss the plan at 7 p.m. Nov. 5 at Saginaw Valley State University, Curtiss Hall, 7400 Bay Road in Saginaw.

“For this process to be successful, the public must be engaged in a genuine and meaningful way,” MDEQ Director Steven Chester said. “We look forward to discussing issues of importance with the public and getting their feedback on the proposed settlement.”

According to the EPA and MDEQ, highlights of the proposed settlement include:

• Technical activities Dow will be required to complete, including addressing high-use properties along the rivers, addressing erosion and movement of highly contaminated soil and sediment, and identifying cleanup options in an upstream-to-downstream fashion.

• How the Superfund process will be used to meet Dow’s investigation and clean-up obligations under its MDEQ RCRA (active facility waste regulations) license.

• Legal terms addressing EPA and MDEQ’s site costs, fines Dow may be required to pay and the process for resolving disagreements among EPA, MDEQ and Dow - How the community will be able to obtain technical assistance.

Carney said the EPA feels they have a good proposal that meets the goals set out when negotiations began in the summer.

“This was a good process for getting a settlement so we can move forward on this,’ she said.

The proposed settlement and a plain language fact sheet are available online at www.epa.gov/region5/sites/dowchemical, at the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library, 1710 W. St. Andrews St., and at Hoyt Main Library, 5050 Janes Ave. in Saginaw.

The fact sheet is a good place to begin for people looking to get familiar with the proposed agreement, Carney said.
 

http://ourmidland.com/articles/2009/10/17/local_news/doc4ad95d68a71c7593212791.txt

For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawassee River Watch web site www.trwnews.net for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga. . The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The source organization's web site link is listed to the right of the article, visit often for other news in our area. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.