Many a hand has scaled the grand old face of the plateau
Some belong to strangers and some to folks you know
Holy ghosts and talk show hosts are planted in the sand
To beautify the foothills and shake the many hands
There's nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop
And an illustrated book about birds
You see a lot up there but don't be scared
Who needs action when you got words?
When you've finished with the mop then you can stop
And look at what you've done
The plateau's clean, no dirt to be seen
And the work it was fun
There's nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop
And an illustrated book about birds
You see a lot up there but don't be scared
Who needs action when you got words
Well the many hands began to scan around for the next plateau
Some said it was in Greenland and some say Mexico
Others decided it was nowhere except for where they stood
But those were all just guesses, wouldn't help you if they could
-Curt Kirkwood
I give up. Now we are likening the Dioxin in the Saginaw River to Agent Orange. Yes, Dioxins are in agent orange…by the way they are also coming out of the tail pipe of your car. Has anyone ever mentioned to the masses that dose makes the poison. To suggest that the Dioxins at the levels at which they have been found (even in the hotspot) in the Saginaw River are somehow in the same class as that of agent organge, Love Cannal pollution or anywhere close to the problem PCB's are highlights the fact that folks buy into sensationalism in the press.
Yes, chemical and paper companies are evil. We live to destroy the earth to make a profit. It's a conspiracy to ruin the world for our kids so we can make some money (sarcasm very much intended). It's too bad that about 90% of every man made object in your eye shot sitting at your computer was contributed to by both the chemical or paper industries. I long for the good old days when man lived in caves, sported fig leaves and slept on the floor.
Steve, I wasn't trying to make this personal either. However, I'm a proud Dow Chemical employee and I can tell you with 100% certainty Dow is one of the most environmentally responsible chemical companies in the world and to watch as the EPA, MDEQ and Lone Tree Counsil blow this issue out of proportion in the press makes me ill.
By the way, again I must stress I am speaking for myself and my words in no way should be contributed to my employer nor do I have any more information about this issue other than what I get from public available sources. Having said that I want to stress that Dow has gone out of its way to address the MDEQ and EPA's conserns about Dioxins in the River. When this hot spot was discovered Dow quickly came to an agreement with the EPA to address it on an expedited basis and is doing so. What Dow has stressed is that the governmental authorities and general public should not be running around like chickens with their heads cut off making Dow remediate the river without facts to back up the need to do so. To date, I am unaware of any studies that show that there is any increased documented health risks or effects on humans in the Titt and Saginaw River water sheds as a result of the Dioxins that have been there a very long time…i.e., if the Dioxins were that dangerous shouldn't there be some documented health effects notable by now? Likewise, there is zero data that I'm aware of that suggests that Dioxin levels in the fish and wildlife sampled in the watershed are at levels that are potentially dangerous to health. Are consumption advisories being issued to be overly cautious, yes. Is there any data to suggest consuming fish and wild life from the area is a health risk to anyone, not that I'm aware of. Do heavy metals and PCBs need to be cleaned up in the Fox River, probably so. Do the Dioxin's in the Saginaw River justify such broad based clean up efforts? Not that I'm aware of but if someone can point me to a scientific study (not somebody's opinion in the press) that confirms that leaving the Dioxins in-situ in the river posses a significant health risk to man and animals then maybe I'll be persuaded to the other side of this argument.
Hamilton Reef says: "The Saginaw River system needs cleanup first for human health issues and for the sport fishery including the future GLS muskie program for the Saginaw Bay." I hate to quote Will on this since he usually drives me nuts when he breaks this out but how about some science instead of feelings on this issue.
The riparian residents of the Tittabbawassee River and Saginaw Bay Watershed Council learned a long ago that it is a waste of time debating environment. The DEQ file on Dow weighs several pounds and DOW has had a long history of covering up their past. For more details contact the DEQ and SBWC directly.
Scrappy,
I see where you are coming from with this. But your original posts lead me to believe that you don't think that persistent chemicals in the environment are a problem and I see from your last post that is not so. That is why I mentioned Love Canal. Please, man, don't put me into the category of people who hate big business, the logging industry or Dow. These companies are the product of free market and progress in this country providing jobs and products to make our nation what it is. No argument there. Maybe you are correct in this case with the Saginaw that sensationalism has made this cleanup seem bigger than it is. So what? If a company discharged the toxic substance, or slag, or simply just sand into a trout stream covering all the gravel, then should that company which made billions in profits from its actions not clean it up? Wow. Is it a punishment to do so or is it simply acknowledgement of responsibility? I don't know that Dow did it deliberately or tried to cover it up, I doubt it, but don't really care. You said mark your words, the cleanup will cause more problems. They are marked. Time will tell, they are cleaning it up as we speak uhhhh ………type. Ok, for real this time, I've said enough. Duke, nice poem. Touching.
I can't help myself so I have to add one more thing. Steve, you are correct, I am certainly NOT against pollution being cleaned up and I think you at least understand a bit where I'm coming from. Again, I didn't mean for this post to be personal as to anyone but since I spend more time at work then I do fishing or home with my wife I feel a little defensive when my employer's good name is attacked.
For others monitoring this link, what I do question is whether or not it is fair to use today's standards and technology to judge what was done in the past and then say business should be punished today for doing what wasn't fully understood scientifically or was not illegal at the time (yes, I debate the post Hamilton previously posted for any number of legal reasons which I will not put my lawyer hat on to debate here). If this were about current releases or intentional pollution in conflict with their EPA discharge permits I'd be the first to say business should clean that up and be punished. But that is not the case here. So, the question in my mind is, should Dow's current employees and shareholders be punished for unintended actions taken by our grandfathers and great grandfathers? Shouldn't it be the government that cleans this stuff up? No people say because that is my tax money and big business should clean up its own mess. Well, hey, news flash everyone, quit complaining that there are fewer and fewer jobs for American, prices for goods are too high, we are heading into a recession and that big business is taking the show over seas. Sure they are, they can't afford to do business here because the general public thinks we are a charity (see tort litigation and envirionmentalists). Want big business to clean up the mess, ok, we can do that. Then our profits go down, consumer prices go up and jobs get eliminated. This is a capitalistic society folks, businesses work for a profit, they aren't charities. If you make the climate such that business can't make money they will either go someplace else where they can or close the door, either way the economy and hard working Americans suffer. Think about that the next time you are quick to call for expensive, remedial clean-ups without scientific evidence to support the necessity of doing so other than the fact that some self proclaimed environmentalist (driving a big car, living in a nice house and sipping lattes out of a syrofoam container), doesn't like the fact that the "pollution" has been there since before they were born.
Actually its a Meat Puppets song that was performed by Nirvana for their Unplugged album. I'm not a total grungie, but Nirvana was good! I like the song, I take it to be the unspoken battle cry of the extremist environmentalists- and by that I only the types who typify the "Who needs action when you've got words". Certainly not painting all environmentalists with that broad brush, but there is that element, as there are black sheep in any group.
Dow divers sucking up the muck
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12/04/07 AMY PAYNE THE SAGINAW NEWS
The dredging equipment hauling up sediment from the Saginaw River near Wickes Park isn't that different from a household vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment, Dow Chemical Co. officials say.
Six members of a Dow dive team are strapping on drysuits and taking a dip in near-freezing water this week to suck up contaminated soil with a hydraulic dredger, ''a vacuum cleaner sort of thing, if you will,'' Dow spokesman John C. Musser said.
The dredger can vacuum 80 to 120 cubic yards of sediment every day, Musser said.
A diver will spend an hour or two at a time vacuuming the riverbed as the other five members on a barge monitor the air feeding down the diver's umbilical cable and other equipment, project leader Todd Konechne said.
''One of the divers on the barge will be suited, ready to go, at all times,'' Konechne said.
The crew is racing the winter frost to dredge up
800 cubic yards of material, he said. That's enough matter to fill nearly 161,579 gallon-size containers.
''The river was essentially frozen completely over Saturday morning,'' Konechne said.
The diving crew, however, won't notice the icy water much, he said. The thermal drysuits prevent the water from entering.
''Once he's under the water, he's in a heated suit,'' Konechne said. ''Whether the water is 32 degrees or 42 degrees, there's very little impact on him.''
Each diver will wave the end of a 6-inch hose over a roped-off grid covering 14,000 square feet of the river, shaving off the top 18 inches of soil.
''They essentially have an outline down there of what they're going to remove,'' he said.
A pump pushes the slurry — a mixture of water and dirt too fluid to qualify as mud — to filtration and ''dewatering'' machines on the shore, which dry the soil.
''The large particle-sized material is stripped from the slurry,'' Konechne said. ''And it gets recirculated through this process several times to remove as much of the sediment as possible.''
The contaminants are found more in the soil than the water, he said.
''This contamination has an affinity for solids,'' he said. ''By filtering the water and removing the sediment and solids, we can take the contaminants out of the water as well.''
From there, trucks take the dry sediment to Dow's landfill on Salzburg Road in Midland County.
''We're taking it out of play,'' Konechne said. ''If it's in our landfill, nobody's going to be coming into contact with the material, no wildlife is going to come into contact with the material.''
Winter weather prohibits more sampling in the Saginaw River, Konechne said, but Dow researchers hope to resume the process in the spring.
''Our intent is to complete the sediment and floodplain soil sampling in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers by next year,'' he said.
Similar dredging projects in the Tittabawassee River have hauled up 20,000 to 30,000 cubic yards of material, Konechne said.
Preliminary testing on the area near Wickes Park returned a dioxin sample measuring 1.6 million parts per trillion — a level nearly 20 times higher than any recorded in America, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
However, further tests on the original sample of surface soil registered levels ranging from 7,000 parts per trillion to a little more than 18,000 parts per trillion, Dow officials said.
Officials at the Michigan Department of Community Health were concerned enough about the preliminary finding that they extended a fish consumption advisory already in effect for the Tittabawassee River to include the entire Saginaw River and a portion of Saginaw Bay.
The advisory, in place until further notice, warns against eating carp, catfish and white bass — fish that feed near the riverbed where contaminants are buried — and alerts women of child-bearing age and children against eating certain types of other fish.
For more information on dioxin, visit <url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]
">** you do not have permission to see this link **.
Amy Payne is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach her at 776-9687.
Engineer: Dow data was bad
Employee claims she was demoted after questioning test results on Tittabawassee River.
Dow Chemical Co. knowingly submitted bad data about chemical levels in the Tittabawassee River to state environmental regulators, a company insider alleges in a whistleblower lawsuit.
Priscilla Denney, a Dow engineer who says she was responsible for validating Dow's data about levels of dioxin and other chemicals before it was sent to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, alleges in a lawsuit filed in Saginaw County Circuit Court that she was demoted after raising concerns about the data.
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Front page Free Press
Fed up with dioxin, residents say they want out
They call cleanup slow and want government to move them
The Whitneys had hoped never to sell the house they bought along the river 15 years ago."We always dreamed of living on the river," Whitney said. "We were tickled to death when we bought it. We put lots of money into it." Now, "we'd relocate in a hot minute," he said. "But my house is essentially worth zero."
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How bad is it?
Near one homeowner's back door, dioxin levels hit 1,100 parts per trillion. The state's cleanup standard is 90 ppt. There was even dioxin in the carpet.
Area leaders brainstorm on how to spend potential windfall of Dow dioxin settlement
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12/13/07 By JEFF KART ** you do not have permission to see this link ** | 894-9639
A process going on behind closed doors will determine how potentially hundreds of millions of dollars is spent to deal with dioxin contamination in the Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River and Bay.
Some of the money, which could total around $300 million, will likely go to dredging, to remove hot spots of the toxic chemicals, according to participants at a Saginaw Bay Coastal Initiative meeting on Wednesday.
Some money will likely go to wetland and wildlife habitat restoration projects, especially in the Bay City area of the watershed, to compensate for natural resources impacted by dioxin from historic Dow Chemical Co. discharges in Midland.
The dioxin cleanup money will be allocated as part of a Natural Resource Damage Assessment coordinated by trustees from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources, Michigan Attorney General's Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
The allocation process is confidential under federal law, and government agencies act on behalf of the public in deciding how to restore natural areas for public use and enjoyment. Dow does not have a seat at the table. The amount that Dow will pay has not been disclosed.
Ernie Krygier, a Bay County commissioner and head of the Save Our Shoreline property rights group, he'd like to see about $1 milllion go to ''completely restore'' the beach at the Bay City State Recreation Area in Bangor Township.
That's all the beach. The entire shoreline, stretching for 11ڴ miles in front of the Saginaw Bay park. Right now, there's only a 1,200-foot-long northern beach that's maintained, and it's plagued by problems with muck and low water levels.
Krygier said the money could go to remove muck, pump fresh sand from the bay back onto the shoreline, remove invasive phragmites and restore natural vegetation to the area.
''What a draw that would be,'' Krygier said.
He envisions some of the $1 million being set aside for an endowment fund, so the shoreline could be continually maintained.
Charley Curtiss, with the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy, said he also envisions up to $20 million going to a Saginaw Bay restoration endowment fund administered by the Bay Area Community Foundation, to give grants of up to $1 million a year for local projects.
Krygier and Curtiss were among about 50 participants at Wednesday's meeting, held at the Doubletree hotel and conference center in downtown Bay City.
Laura Ogar, Bay County environmental affairs director, said there will likely be only one chance for public input, after a draft of the plan has already been created
Ogar said local agencies and residents need to make sure their voice is heard in how the money should be spent on improving natural resources including land, fish, plants, air, water, groundwater and drinking water supplies.
Ogar said she thinks committing some money for the beach makes sense. Older folks in the area talk about going to the state park beach for Sunday picnics, but today's teenagers don't tell those stories, she said.
''There is a lost generation of beach users and bay users,'' Ogar said.
Bay County Executive Thomas L. Hickner said another idea for some of the money is building a Saginaw Bay environmental education center as part of the Bay City-based BaySail program, which operates two Appledore tall ships on the Saginaw River.
Officials at the meeting said they still need to find out more about what damages dioxin can be attributed to before they go about making recommendations on how the money should be spent.
Hickner said he'll help put together a work group to investigate the requirements for funding, come up with a consensus of ideas, and submit those formally to the trustees.
Other general ideas mentioned at the meeting included compensation for impacts to tourism.
Russ Terry, with Ducks Unlimited in Ann Arbor, said his organization would look to use some money to leverage additional federal dollars for restoration projects.
There are real and perceived damages from dioxins here, Terry and others said.
''The Saginaw Bay is a huge destination for hunting and fishing. Surely, the amount of visitors must have been decreased – millions and millions of dollars of impact,'' Terry said.
Dow finishes cleanup
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12/20/07 JUSTIN ENGEL THE SAGINAW NEWS 776-9691
The cleanup of a dioxin ''hot spot'' in the Saginaw River near Wickes Park is finished, say officials with Dow Chemical Co.
John C. Musser, Dow spokesman, said crews took final samples of the region surrounding the dredged site and determined the danger is gone.
''They've already started to decontaminate the (dredging) equipment,'' he said.
In late November, crews began dredging the area near where the sample came from beneath 12 feet of water, using an abandoned boat launch in Wickes Park as a base.
A top government scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said the find — which measured 1.6 million parts per trillion — was nearly 20 times higher than any other recorded in EPA archives.
The next week, Musser announced scientists couldn't locate other high-level amounts in the same sample jar. He said that means it likely was a small, isolated discovery rather than a large-scale problem.
Regardless, officials at the Michigan Department of Community Health decided to extend a fish consumption advisory in effect for the Tittabawassee River for more than three decades to include the entire Saginaw River and part of Saginaw Bay.
The notice warns against eating carp, catfish and white bass — fish that feed near the riverbed — and alerts women of child-bearing age and children against eating certain types of other fish.
State guidelines require corrective action on environmental contamination measuring above 1,000 parts per trillion. Michigan's state average for dioxin in soil is
7 parts per trillion.
Dow has spent much of the year planning and executing the removal of three dioxin ''hot spots'' discovered along a six-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee River downstream of the chemical complex.
Musser said those three cleanup efforts also are complete.
When Dow-sponsored Ann Arbor Technical Services finishes its survey, it will have analyzed the entire 22-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee River and the first six miles of the Saginaw River.
The initiative is part of Dow's plans for cleaning dioxin along the river system. The state Department of Environmental Quality requires the company to measure the scope of contamination downstream.
Dow officials said the Wickes Park discovery fits the profile of ''historical contamination'' that resulted from waste material released from Dow at the turn of the 20th century.
CONTACT: Anne Rowan, 312-353-9391, ** you do not have permission to see this link **
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 08-OPA01
EPA terminates negotiations with Dow Chemical on river cleanups
(Chicago, Ill. – Jan. 4, 2008) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 today stopped its negotiations with Dow Chemical aimed at a settlement to conduct a study and interim cleanup actions for dioxin contamination in the Tittabawassee River system.
"EPA does not believe that the deal Dow is offering goes far enough," said Ralph Dollhopf, Associate Director for the Superfund Division of EPA's Regional Office in Chicago. "Key issues that are paramount for protecting human health and the environment remain unresolved. EPA simply will not accept any deal that is not comprehensive."
Last October, EPA called for 60 days of negotiations under provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or Superfund. Superfund specifies the process in which a remedial investigation and feasibility study must be conducted, as well as the design and execution of a cleanup plan. Last month, EPA extended its Dec.10, 2007, deadline to resolve remaining issues and reach a final agreement.
"I am extremely disappointed with this outcome," said Regional Administrator Mary A. Gade. "EPA approached negotiations with high hopes and realistic expectations. Our team put in many long hours of good faith efforts that came to an unfortunate end today. EPA is now reviewing its options for ensuring that dioxin contamination in the river system and the Midland area can be fully addressed."
The targeted area begins upstream of Dow's Midland, Mich., facility and extends downstream to the Saginaw River, its floodplains and Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron.
Under Superfund, an investigation and study are necessary to evaluate the nature and extent of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants from a site and assess the risks they present to human health and the environment. It would also require that enough data be developed to evaluate a range of cleanup options.
Dow's Midland facility is a 1,900-acre chemical manufacturing plant. Dioxins and furans are byproducts from the manufacture of chlorine-based products. Past waste disposal practices, fugitive emissions and incineration at Dow have resulted in on- and off-site dioxin and furan contamination.
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Appeals court OKs class-action certification in Dow dioxin case
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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Court of Appeals has signed off on giving residents class-action status in their lawsuit against Dow Chemical Co. over dioxin contamination.
About 2,000 property owners in the Tittabawassee River basin say dioxin releases from Dow's Midland plant reduced the value of property along the river.
Dioxin is a chemical byproduct that may cause cancer and damage reproductive and immune systems.
A Saginaw County judge gave the suit class-action status. Dow wanted cases to continue individually.
The appeals court released a divided ruling Friday in favor of the property owners. But the two judges in the majority — Karen Fort Hood and Patrick Meter — split over how damages should be assessed if Dow is found liable at trial.
Judge Kirsten Frank Kelly dissented from the ruling, saying the plaintiffs failed to show commonality to be certified as a class. Some properties have elevated dioxin levels while others have none, Kelly said.
Dow may appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court, which in 2005 threw out a separate part of the suit concerning whether Dow should pay the cost of testing homeowners for future dioxin-related health problems.
The dioxin issue has dragged on for years. The suit was filed in March 2003 but hasn't yet gone to trial.
Also, the federal government said earlier this month that it had failed to reach a deal with Dow over the study and interim cleanup of the dioxin contamination. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it ended talks with Dow and was reviewing its options for ensuring that dioxin contamination in the river system and the Midland area is fully addressed.
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On the Net:
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2008
Contact: Robert McCann (517) 241-7397
February 7 Community Meeting on Dow Corrective Action Work
The Department of Environmental Quality will be holding the next
quarterly Midland/Saginaw/Bay City (Tri-Cities) Dioxin Community Meeting
on Thursday, February 7, 2008 at the Horizons Conference Center, 6200
State Street, Saginaw. The meeting is open to the public and will run from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Staff from the DEQ, Department of Community Health, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency will participate and be available one-half hour before and one-half hour after the meeting for individual discussion with the public. Maps and
other handout materials will be available for viewing and discussion.
The Dow Chemical Company has elected not to participate in this
community meeting.
The agenda for about the first hour of the February 7 meeting includes
a summary of 2007 Tittabawassee River activities and findings and
potential 2008 activities; an overview of EPA/DEQ coordination,
including a summary of 2007 Tittabawassee River Reach D and Saginaw
River Wickes Park area activities; an evaluation of Saginaw River Dioxin
Exposures and Health Risks; and a brief update on the ongoing
Tittabawassee/Saginaw River treatment technology studies. Following
these presentations, 50 minutes are set aside for questions and
discussion on these and other topics. During the final 45 minutes of
the meeting, agency staff will be available at several stations for
one-on-one discussion and attendees will be able to view Tittabawassee
River sampling results on maps and discuss health/exposure concerns and
other matters directly with agency technical staff and management.
The DEQ is unable to have this meeting recorded or transcribed.
The meeting agenda and related documents will be posted to the DEQ Web
site prior to the community meeting at <url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]
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and may be accessed by clicking on the “DEQ/Dow Community
Involvement” and “Dow Off-site Corrective Action” Quick Links in the right navigation column. The next quarterly community meeting is scheduled to be held on May 7, 2008.
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“Protecting Michigan’s Environment, Ensuring Michigan’s
Future”
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