Dioxin Update

Lone Tree Council and TRW

September 26th  2007 # 100

www.trwnews.net

 

I hesitated only briefly to use the Dioxin Update format to beg your attention to a less obvious aspects of the budget battle and our local contamination. Let me share some information with you prepared by people much smarter than myself. It is my sheer love and appreciation of this state's natural resources that I ask you to read on. Folks this is about our Great Lakes........and I submit to you any legislator who thinks funding of Great Lakes protection is not a priority deserves to be booted in the next election.

 

Water quality is a public health issue and it is a huge economic issue. Tourism is our third leading industry, it is incumbent on clean water, beaches and fish. Look at Saginaw Bay, muck, dioxin, sewage, phragmities, fecal material.........monitoring, investigation, enforcement and cleanup are not free. DNR and DEQ should not be on the chopping block. They have taken enough hits.

 

Our legacy, like our history, should be rich in stories and experiences with these lakes. Report after report demonstrate declining water quality, closed beaches, increasing issues with invasive species, toxic build up,..............

 

Are the lakes a priority for you? Click on the  link  below and then let the Governor and your legislators know you stand with our great Great  lakes.

 

 

Michigan's Great Outdoors suffering from budget cuts 

 

The following was pilfered from Dave Dempsey's blog  http://daviddempsey.typepad.com/

 
The Department of Natural Resources and Department of Environmental Quality have suffered a 62 percent decline in funding since 2001. This decline is not at all proportionate to overall declines in      statewide funds: for the same period, total general fund spending dropped only 6 percent. Please go to the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and read more.

http://www.michiganlcvedfund.org/

 snip:

In Saginaw, increased budget cuts to the DEQ would have consequences for local citizens.  "The most pervasive toxic contamination in the state threatens Lake Huron. The DEQ has worked five years to bring the responsible party, the Dow Chemical Company, to a point where some dioxins and other toxics are being removed. What happens if the DEQ's budget is cut again?  What happens to our rivers, our lakes, our drinking water, our fisheries, if our first line of defense is hamstrung by budget cuts," said Lone Tree Council Chairperson Terry Miller.  "And the DEQ's Saginaw Bay Coastal Initiative, an effort to deal with the shoreline muck, invasive species, and sewer overflows -- do we just tell people to hold their noses and hope?"

snip:

Howard Tanner, former Director of the DNR expressed his concern over the report's conclusions.   "Michigan was once a leader on conservation and environmental protection of our vast natural resources.   Somehow that trend has been reversed and our leadership in conservation has been tarnished.   It is up to our leaders in Lansing to work together to return to our once proud legacy of environmental stewardship by properly funding the DNR and DEQ."

Michelle Hurd Riddick

Lone Tree Council

Source: Lone Tree Council / TRW

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 source organization's web site link is listed above. The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.