Dioxin Update
Lone Tree Council
April 18th 2003



www.trwnews.net


Next Meeting is Monday April 21st at Greenpoint 6pm


Spring is finally in the air and likely here to stay. We can surely anticipate that people will be hitting the turf in their yards and local parks in the coming days and weeks. We can only hope that the state moves to educate the public on interim measures to protect themselves from the contamination. Happy Easter and Blessed Passover to all.

DEQ/DCH Meeting

March 27th the above state agencies did presentations to local officials, Dow and citizens on the Dow Chemical License and plan for public participation. The Tittabawassee River and floodplain are now specifically identified as an offsite release slated for corrective action. If you remember last year, these areas were removed by the Harding administration as known off site releases.

The public participation plan proposed by DEQ needs some tweaking to say the least. One area of concern is the ability for the state and Dow to continue to have isolated dialogue on the contamination. Think about your concepts of public participation and we can incorporate it into a letter.

Will have copies of both available at the Monday's meeting.


ATSDR

You remember them. This is the branch of CDC that declared the Tittabawassee River Floodplain an "indeterminate health risk". Pretty much absent all of last year, this agency is now slowly getting back into
the picture. Tentative plans include a newsletter to address the contamination and needed interim health measures.

Soil Testing

Four locations (with four samples each) were taken on Stroebel Rd in the past two weeks to ascertain the extent of the contamination. Sue Matlock from DEQ said the results would take about month.


Dow Health Study

Stop beating this dead horse! Dow continues to push for their health study and the Midland Daily News once again called for the study in an oped piece on April 1st. I pasted it at the end of this update.

Saginaw County Department of Public Health

Have not been to Immerman Park in several days but on my last visit the inadequate signs posted by the Health Department remain in place. These signs, like the Dow Health Study ignore inhalation of dust as a major exposure pathway for dioxin. As you recall, Michigan Department of Community Health sent a letter in early March to Mr. Niederhauser, Director of the Saginaw County Health Department, telling him the signs are not adequate.


Diane Hebert Quiz of the Day

WHO SAID THIS AND WHEN?

TCDD WAS FOUND DOWNSTREAM OF DOW'S MIDLAND PLANT, THE
STATUS REPORT CONCLUDED THAT "THE AVAILABLE INFORMATION.... CONTINUES TO

SUGGEST THAT DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY'S MIDLAND, MICHIGAN PLANT REPRESENTS
THE
MAJOR, IF NOT THE ONLY, SOURCE OF TCDD CONTAMINATION FOUND IN THE
TITTABAWASSEE AND SAGINAW RIVERS AND SAGINAW BAY IN MICHIGAN."

NOTING ALSO THAT "THE LEVELS OF POLYCHLORINATED DIBENZODIOXINS FOUND IN
MIDLAND ARE 2-4 MAGNITUDES HIGHER THAN THOSE REPORTED AT OTHER
LOCATIONS,"
THE EPA EVALUATION CHARACTERIZED THE MIDLAND AREA AS A
"DEFINITE TCDD HOTSPOT."

Scroll down for the answer

Your prize should you answer correctly is a lifetime supply of compost from the Dow waste water treatment plant or garden dirt from the NE perimeter of the Dow World Headquarters.









ANSWER:


USA EPA 1979 ( is that pathetic?)


Last year when I suggested the area would become a "dioxin hotspot" should the 831ppt become a reality I was accused of being an "alarmist"-------- Go figure.

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See you Monday at GreenPoint

Michelle Hurd Riddick
Lone Tree Council

 




Our view: We’ll say it again: Health study needed
The Midland Daily News 03/31/2003


Once again, concern over the level of dioxin contamination in our area points to the need for a health study.
Residents of the Tittabawassee River floodplain filed a class-action complaint against The Dow Chemical Co. last week in Saginaw County Circuit Court.
The number currently is 26, but it could grow to about 2,000 who believe their property has lost value and their health has been compromised.
We will be interested to see how far this goes in court. Because of two consent orders, the state cannot hold Dow liable for dioxins discharged into the river before 1997, and federal involvement may have to be sought.
That does not, however, change our opinion: A health study is needed.
One was discussed, debated and derided much of last year, as Dow proposed one to a government agency behind closed doors, and offered to fund it as well.
Regardless of the company’s insistence the money would be in a blind trust of sorts and that all involved parties, including the public, would have a say in how the scientists who designed the study were chosen, there were those who insisted any study funded by Dow would be tainted. Then the study was included in a consent order, a move denounced as inappropriate by some in both the activist and state agency camps, and then the whole deal fell apart.
So here we sit, with contaminated land and nothing to tell us what it means for our health. And since any study likely will take at least a couple of years to design, get proposals for and conduct, time truly is a-wasting.
People want answers, and it is becoming more difficult to care about the minutiae of how we arrive at them. If the state and federal governments have no money and the polluting company can provide some, by all means, let Dow pay. Throw as much oversight at the money and design and researchers as you want, but let’s get this show on the road.