Tittabawassee River Watch Editorial          Back to editorial page  

09/05/2007 Midland Daily News editorial

Our View: Data should remain private

The Environmental Protection Agency has no right to site-specific residential dioxin sampling data collected within the city of Midland in 2006 and 2007.

While environmentalists and the EPA might believe that information is public, we believe they are wrong. Residents who agreed to have their property tested for dioxin were assured confidentiality as a means of protecting their home values. The agreement provided a way to determine the scope of the dioxin problem in Midland without penalizing property owners. The data was "blinded" so that specific sites would not be known.

But now the EPA is requesting the city release all dioxin sampling data to give the agency a more complete picture of The Dow Chemical Co.'s historic dioxin contamination.

The city is moving cautiously with respect to the request.

"We would be rather reluctant to give up that data unless there was some significant, compelling reason to push us in that direction," said City Manager Jon Lynch. "The EPA believes there is a compelling reason and we'll have to look into that."

We do not see a compelling reason for data release, but we do see a compelling reason for withholding the information. Midland residents cooperated with government so that a better picture of the city's dioxin contamination could be gained. In return, they were promised confidentiality. Now the EPA is asking the city to violate the public's trust. That's wrong, plain and simple.

We want to know what you think! Please feel free to use the "post a comment" link below. Note that the terms and conditions require both first and last name.

©Midland Daily News 2007

Back to editorial page