Tests indicate city water supplies are free of Dow dioxin; neighborhood recontaminated

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tested Saginaw Bay-area municipal water supplies and found them free of toxic dioxin, but the soil in a residential area 22 miles downstream from Dow’s Midland complex has been recontaminated with dioxin and the plan for the long-term work of actually removing the contamination from the Saginaw River watershed is, after 30 years, still in its earliest stages.

Furan results ‘unusable’ in EPA’s Saginaw-area water sampling

In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to test the municipal water systems for Saginaw, Midland and Bay City for a range of contaminants. The move, as Michigan Messenger reported, was a response to citizen concerns that navigational dredging in the Saginaw River could stir up dioxin-contaminated sediments that could contaminate city water supplies that draw from Saginaw Bay. Dioxins and furans from Dow Chemical’s Midland plant are known to have contaminated the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and the bay.

EPA officials pledge transparency with long-term dioxin cleanup plans

SAGINAW — At a community meeting on dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River watershed, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials Wednesday night committed to sampling local municipal water systems for dioxin and posting up-to-date fish consumption advisory signs — two key and immediate community concerns that have been examined in depth by Michigan Messenger.

EPA downplays dredging risk to Bay City water supply

Nearly a month after the onset of a navigational dredging project in the Saginaw River that some worry will send dioxin-contaminated sediments downstream toward the intakes for Bay City’s water supply, EPA officials responded to citizen concerns by announcing it would not test the water for the toxin.

“I can understand why people would be concerned,“ EPA Superfund manager Wendy Carney, said in a phone interview. “But there are a lot of issues out there.”

Lake Huron fish sold without warnings despite health advisories

BAY CITY — A regulatory loophole means Great Lakes fish that may contain potentially dangerous levels of cancer causing dioxin are being sold to consumers without warning.

Love Canal activist blasts EPA dioxin plan as a continuation of Bush-era policy

As a resident of the infamous Niagara Falls, N.Y., neighborhood Love Canal in the 1970s, Lois Gibbs led the fight to clean up dioxin contamination and relocate people who were being exposed to it. Now she is warning that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to spend more time reviewing its decades-old draft report on the human health effects of dioxin is the misguided continuation of a plan established by the administration of former President George W. Bush.

EPA pledges ‘expeditious action’ on Dow dioxin clean-up, but Superfund status not in the works

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s promise to hold Dow Chemical accountable for dioxin contamination in Michigan’s largest watershed is being greeted with “cautious optimism” by some environmental groups and with weariness by others who have been living on contaminated ground for so long they’ve learned not to get too excited about the announcement of a government action plan.

Saginaw River dredging project begins without safety measures sought by the state

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started a project to remove contaminated sediments from the Saginaw River without safety measures requested by the state, a move that sparked worry because toxins such as dioxin could make their way into the water supplies for Saginaw and Bay City, which don’t test for the toxins.

Dow-sponsored Walleye Fest to donate contaminated fish to the poor

Despite advisories that warn people to avoid contact with river sediments and consuming locally caught fish, thousands are expected to participate this weekend in a Dow Chemical-sponsored walleye festival along the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, where the watershed has been contaminated with harmful dioxin and other toxic substances. And just as the Michigan Department of Community Health is warning that children and pre-menopausal women should mostly avoid eating river fish including walleye because of contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxin, organizers of the festival say they plan to donate walleye fillets to a local food bank.