Dow Chemical forms partnership with The Nature Conservancy

Midland-based Dow Chemical will work with The Nature Conservancy on ways to make its manufacturing sites more environmentally sustainable as part of a five-year, $10 million collaboration, the company announced Monday.

From the Associated Press:

“Most people believe it’s a choice — it’s either grow the economy or protect the environment . . . the classic zero-sum game in which someone has to lose,” Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris said in a joint appearance before the Detroit Economic Club with Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy. Dow intends to “demonstrate that protecting nature can be a profitable global priority and can be a smart business strategy,” Liveris said.

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Dow and the conservancy are still working out details of how the initiative will work. But one example might be for Dow to make greater use of “green infrastructure,” such as using trees, wetlands and other natural features for flood control and water treatment, Tercek said.

Dow’s Midland facility has contaminated 52 miles of the Saginaw River watershed with dioxin and other chemicals, and environmental activists in the areas were immediately skeptical about the new partnership.

“Dow has a hard time being green on issues that really count, like cleaning up the mess in your own backyard,” Lone Tree Council member Michelle Hurd Riddick told AP.

The area downstream from Dow’s plant is contaminated enough to qualify as a federal Superfund site but Gov. Jennifer Granholm, under pressure from the company, asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to place the site on the National Priorities List.

EPA is now working with Dow on a cleanup plan for the contaminated river and floodplain but the work is expected to take a decade and it has not involved relocating or compensating people who are living on highly contaminated land. The state of Michigan remains responsible for pursuing remediation of the dioxin fallout that has contaminated the city of Midland.

Dow Chairman Liveris’ statement about the economic benefits of protecting the environment sounds very similar to the environmental philosophy espoused by new governor Rick Snyder, who is still listed as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Michigan Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

It is not yet clear how the Snyder administration will approach Dow’s ongoing environmental concerns in the Saginaw watershed.