Public employees warn Obama about Dow dioxin cleanup deal

Dow and the Tittabawassee River

A watchdog group made up of government employees charged last week that a Michigan dioxin cleanup deal under negotiation between Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “would constitute a precedent-setting abdication of public health protection to a polluter.”

Jeff Ruch, a spokesman for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) told Michigan Messenger that the proposed agreement would be “advisory” rather than “regulatory,” enabling the Midland-based chemical giant to avoid costly remedial measures for dioxin — a potent carcinogen and toxin that was put into the Tittabawassee River in the 1960s by Dow’s Midland plant.

EPA officials were quick to deny that a cleanup plan for the Midwest’s largest area of dioxin contamination would be finalized without public review.

Cleaning up the dioxin contamination, which has spread 50 miles downstream, has become a top priority for state environmentalists and public health officials.

In the final days of the Bush administration, Dow pressured officials in the EPA’s Great Lakes office to override state enforcement of the cleanup of dioxin. On Dec. 15, the EPA proposed that the cleanup proceed under a federal government program, favored by Dow, known as the Superfund Alternative Site process.

Ruch warned that if Dow signs on to the still confidential cleanup framework offered by EPA (which it is expected to do by Feb. 15), the company could later argue that EPA is contractually precluded from pursuing stronger remedial measures. Michigan would be “hamstrung” from taking a tougher regulatory stance on its own, he said.

“It is not clear, however, whether new Obama appointees have weighed in or are even aware of the confidential Dow negotiations, which officially began Dec. 15, 2008,” Ruch said. “How Dow is handled may signal whether we can expect stronger anti-pollution enforcement under the Obama administration than we saw under Bush.”

With top positions in the EPA still unfilled, Ruch expressed concern that a deal between Dow and EPA could run on autopilot and “fly under the radar” of the Obama administration.

Wendy Carney, a manager for EPA’s Superfund division who is involved in the current negotiations with Dow, said that won’t happen.

Region 5 EPA officials have briefed the new administration on the status of their negotiations with Dow, Carney said. She rejected PEER’s claim that a potentially binding legal contract could be created by Feb. 15.

“In order for there to be a contract, all parties have to sign it,“ Carney said.

If Dow signs on to EPA’s proposed Superfund Alternative Site process, she said the agency will make the agreement public and solicit public comment for 30 days before approving it.

“Until we sign it, Dow is not bound to that document either,” Carney said.

Last year, EPA’s Great Lakes administrator Mary Gade called the Superfund Alternative Site process “insufficient to protect human health.” Gade resigned last May saying she was forced out by Bush appointees for holding Dow responsible for cleanup. Now in private practice as an environmental consultant, Gade told Michigan Messenger last week that the new cleanup arrangements were “highly unusual. …

“People need to be insisting that their government officials from Gov. [Jennifer] Granholm to President Obama to the head of [the state Department of Environmental Quality] and EPA do their jobs so they get the protection they deserve,” Gade said.

A new regional administrator could put the brakes on the current process with Dow, but officials at EPA headquarters said they cannot say when the job will be filled.

With the Obama administration seeking to fill top positions quickly, EPA officials expressed optimism that a regional administrator will be named soon. They promised that the new leader would be promptly briefed on dealings with Dow.

But EPA could finalize the deal with Dow without a regional administrator, according to Carney. She said her boss, Superfund division Director Rick Karl, could sign off on the alternative process in late May or early June.

A Dow spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Within his first week as president, Obama issued a directive to all federal departments ordering a freeze on all new rules and regulations issued in the final days of the Bush administration. Community groups in Michigan say they hope his administration will take a similar approach in this case and put a hold on federal cleanup negotiations that lack transparency.

“We would like someone from the Obama administration to intercede on this before Feb. 15,” said Terry Miller of the Lone Tree Council, an environmental group focused on preventing harm from dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River watershed.