Feds release plan for Great Lakes cleanup

The Obama administration has released its plan for how the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will pursue the most pressing environmental problems in the Great Lakes between now and 2014. $475 million has been allocated for the first year of projects in this program. The five main areas of focus for work are: Toxic Substances and [...]

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.

Dow-funded U-M dioxin study criticized for bias

For the last six years, University of Michigan research funded by Dow Chemical has figured prominently in public discussions over what to do about the dioxin contamination caused by the company in the Saginaw River watershed. Federal and state environmental agencies have warned that U-M’s Dioxin Exposure Study has failed to answer crucial questions and that its results are being misinterpreted.

Despite this, the U-M’s lead researcher on the project — a man some environmental health scientists say should not be seen as an objective because of his track record of working for industry interests — is actively insisting his study should shape regulatory action on dioxin.

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.

As Dow dioxin negotiations wrap up, EPA doesn’t anticipate relocations

It’s been four months since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated new dealings with Dow Chemical over the handling of dioxin contamination in Michigan’s Saginaw River watershed and the agency says it expects its closed-door cleanup framework negotiations with the company to conclude by Friday.

Dioxin exposure in Saginaw neighborhood has eased, but threats persist

SAGINAW — Residents of one city neighborhood have been exposed to health-damaging levels of dioxin, and although the contamination has been removed though a cleanup effort required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, future flooding is likely to recontaminate the area.

Both sides put positive spin on Michigan Supreme Court’s Dow class-action ruling

Attorneys representing Dow Chemical and residents of the dioxin-contaminated Tittabawassee River floodplain are emphasizing the positives they see in a Michigan Supreme Court ruling handed down Friday night that announced a new standard for class-action suits and referred the case against Dow back to the circuit court for further consideration.

Mich. Supreme Court expected to rule on Dow contamination class action

In 2002, owners of land along the dioxin-contaminated Tittabawassee River were warned by the state to limit their childrens’ outdoor play because of the health risks associated with chemical contamination that has migrated downstream from Dow Chemical’s Midland facility. This week, six years after those landowners filed a class action case against Dow seeking compensation for property damage, the Michigan Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether the case may proceed as a class action.

17,370 tons of Dow dioxin-contaminated soil removed from park hot spot

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this week that the dioxin cleanup work at West Michigan Park in Saginaw Township is nearing completion. Agency officials required that Dow Chemical pay for cleanup at the park — 15 miles downstream from the company’s Midland plant — where flooding from the Tittabawassee River has deposited dioxin-contaminated sediments. The park had been identified by state officials as a top clean-up priority and designated “time critical” by the EPA after dioxin contamination at levels as high as 5,900 parts per trillion was found there. Federal law requires cleanup of contamination at 1,000 ppt.

Under EPA pressure, Dow agrees to pay for fish advisory signs

Dow Chemical has agreed to pay $10,000 so that the state of Michigan can post updated fish consumption advisory signs along the chemically contaminated Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, warnings that the Midland-based company has balked at paying for previously.