Groups organize public talk on dioxin cleanup
By Tony Lascari tlascari@mdn.net Published: Saturday, December 12, 2009 2:04 AM EST

Environmental scientist Peter deFur will talk about dioxin contamination in local waterways during a community conversation event Tuesday at Delta College.

A grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection agency paid for deFur to serve as a technical advisor to the community. He has assessed a proposed agreement between the EPA and The Dow Chemical Co. on how to address dioxin contamination in the Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay.

The event will start at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Delta College Lecture Theatre, 1961 Delta Road. Organizers say it offers a chance to ask dioxin-cleanup related questions, including everything from public health effects to wildlife and impacts on Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron.

After reviewing the documents involved in the proposed agreement, deFur said he has some initial concerns.

"The agreed order does look a lot like those that have been put in place in other areas," he said. "The Work plan has some elements that I think should be strengthened."

He also would like to see more details about the public participation efforts and how information will be distributed to the community. He said having citizen input at multiple parts of the process improves the results.

"Interested citizens will be able to keep an eye on the whole process," deFur said. "Public participation always improves it."

The site is unusual because of the extensive contamination along miles of the rivers and their flood plains, deFur said. He said he's already received comments and questions for citizens interested in the proposed agreements.

"Mostly the questions have to do with the adequacy of the work plan and whether or not the agreed order is comparable to others around the country," he said.

Sponsors of the event Tuesday include the Tittabawassee River Watch, Clean Water Action, Saginaw Valley Sustainability Society, The Ecology Center, Lone Tree Council and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.

To review the draft agreement between EPA and Dow Chemical go to: http://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/dowchemical/index.htm .

Public comments on the plan will be accepted by the EPA through Thursday. To comment, visit www.epa.gov/region5/publiccomment  or e-mail krause.patricia@epa.gov . People also can fax comments to (312) 697-2568 or mail them to Patricia Krause, Superfund Division (SI-7J), U.S. EPA Region 5, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604.

http://ourmidland.com/articles/2009/12/12/local_news/2281960.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.