EPA developing response to public comments about dioxin cleanup
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 10:30 AM By Lindsay Knake | The Saginaw News

KOCHVILLE TWP. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working on a response to comments about the interim cleanup plan for the Tittabawassee River.

The agency will implement cleanup actions, such as removing dioxin- and furan-contaminated soil, from high-use properties in the coming months. The comment period, designed to give the public an opportunity to respond to the EPA’s cleanup plan, ended March 13.

EPA members also are internally discussing solutions for a furan-contaminated island in the Tittabawassee River, and may hold public comment period as early as April, said Interim Cleanup Manager Mary Logan.

Island MM is about 17 miles downstream from the Midland-based Dow Chemical Co plant.

At Monday’s Saginaw-Tittabawassee Rivers Contamination Community Action Group meeting, Logan and Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment representative Al Taylor presented the status of Segment 1, a three-mile section of the Tittabawassee River adjacent to Dow Chemical Co.’s Midland plant.

In 2007 through 2009, Dow dredged and removed about 19,000 cubic yard of contaminated sediment and placed a sand and stone cap over about 1,500 feet of contamination in the river, Taylor said. Dow collects all groundwater and runoff on the site and treats it before releasing it into the river.

The EPA continues to evaluate levels of chemicals in sediments near the riverbanks and develop cleanup options, Logan said.

"We want to make sure things are effective and manageable in the long term," she said.

The advisory group’s next meeting is April 18 at Saginaw Valley State University's Curtiss Hall, and the EPA will continue to update the public about the cleanup status in future meetings.

Comments

 Katt March 22, 2011 at 12:18PM

EPA do us a favor and just skip the fluff and cleanup the river. Do it for Dow even if you have to take them by the hand and hit em with a big stick. Give us back our river. Do your job.

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2011/03/epa_developing_response_to_pub.html

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