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.”

Kalamazoo River cleanup plan is finalized

KALAMAZOO — A day after officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discussed the next phase of work to remove soil and sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from the Kalamazoo River near the city of Plainwell, the agency made the project official on Tuesday.

As Kalamazoo River cleanup is celebrated, next phase of PCB remediation set to be announced

Updated, June 9, 3:38 p.m.

PLAINWELL — It might seem like just a small-scale cleanup in a gargantuan overall project to rid the Kalamazoo River of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, but state and federal environmental officials are hailing the next step in the cleanup of the river as the kind of sustained progress that has been sought for decades.

The yet-to-be announced $10 million project will take place at and behind a diversion dam about 2 miles upstream from Plainwell, which is about 10 miles north of Kalamazoo, said Jim Saric, remedial project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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.

Feds, Georgia-Pacific agree on Kalamazoo River PCB landfill containment plan

KALAMAZOO — Federal environmental officials announced recently an agreement with Georgia-Pacific Corp. to begin work on capping a Kalamazoo Township landfill filled with material laden with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, part of a federal Superfund cleanup of the Kalamazoo River.

Tale of two rivers: N.Y.’s Hudson River PCB dredging disposal shows differences in how Mich.’s Saginaw River project is being handled

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s dredging of PCBs from New York’s Hudson River is being watched by Michigan environmental groups concerned with dioxin in the Saginaw River watershed as an envied example of the federal government taking action on a long-stalled case. A recent story in The New York Times shows some important differences between [...]

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.

PCBs from Mass. Superfund site to be shipped to Michigan

Money from the federal stimulus package will accelerate a plan to clean up PCB-contaminated New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts by dredging contaminated soil and shipping it to Michigan, the Boston Globe reports. The additional money will allow a massive “dewatering” facility on the harbor to operate continuously eight months a year, instead of the 40-45 [...]

K’zoo River cleanup slowed by chemical company’s bankruptcy protection

KALAMAZOO — Be patient: That’s the message from federal environmental regulators to advocates and stakeholders pressing for the cleanup of hundreds of thousands of pounds of sediment and soil in the Kalamazoo River contaminated with harmful polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a remnant of the papermaking industry that flourished along the river for most of the 20th century.

EPA calls Dow ‘amenable,’ plans to test more neighborhoods for dioxin

Ralph Dollhopf, regional associate director for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund division, said Dow was “amenable” during the first meeting between the company and the regulatory agency since EPA demanded cleanup of dioxin contamination at 10 Saginaw homes. “Hopefully, Dow will be willing to enter into a consent arrangement to perform the cleanup work that [...]