Sunday, September 26, 2004
By Jeff KartTimes Writer
Dioxins aren't just Midland's problem anymore.
Harmful levels of the toxic chemicals have been found in the shoreline soils and sediment of the Saginaw River and bay - well beyond the Dow Chemical Co. plant on the Tittabawassee River.
Dioxins have been found as far out as six miles into the bay, said Allan C. Brouillet, enforcement specialist with the DEQ in Bay City.
More testing will be done by the state next month to further assess the dangers to humans.
But the Bay City area may never get a chance to help decide how the pollution is addressed. Dow Chemical representatives are in closed-door meetings with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, developing a plan that could let Dow leave more pollution in the rivers and bay than current state standards allow.
Some of the dioxin concentrations found in Bay City area testing are as high as 2,500 parts per trillion; the standard that the state considers safe for residential areas is 90 parts per trillion.
Susan Kaelber-Matlock, senior geologist with the DEQ in Bay City, said dioxins found in the Saginaw River and bay have the same chemical "fingerprint" as those found in the Tittabawassee, which have the same fingerprint as dioxins discharged by Dow in previous years.
"It's still Dow's dioxin, all the way out into the bay," Kaelber-Matlock said.
Almost all of the readings are above 10 parts per trillion - high enough to impact birds and small mammals, causing reproductive problems and deformities, according to a state-commissioned report.
There already are advisories against eating too much fish from the Saginaw River and bay, due to dioxins and other pollution in the waterways.
DEQ officials say the upcoming dioxin tests, funded by a $180,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant, will help identify "hot spots" where dioxins have settled.
Dioxins are byproducts of chemical manufacturing and incinerating systems. Dioxins have been linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems in humans.
Dow remains mum
Allan B. Taylor, senior geologist with the DEQ Waste and Hazardous Materials Division in Lansing, said Dow is not the only contributor of contaminants to the Saginaw River.
Taylor said the chemical fingerprint of dioxins in the Saginaw River and bay "looks like" Dow's. But other contaminants like polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the river and bay can exhibit similar chemical profiles, and there may be arguments from Dow over the source of the contamination, he said.
Dow officials declined to discuss dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River and bay or the company's connection to it.
The company's operating license requires the company to address dioxin contamination at levels above 90 parts per trillion in residential areas, Taylor said.
The license also requires contamination to be addressed at lower levels, if necessary, to protect wildlife and fish or prevent food chain contamination. That means the ecological risk assessment could drive the cleanup.
But Dow has resisted DEQ efforts to enforce the license, and is in closed-door negotiations with DEQ officials over how to address dioxin pollution in the watershed.
The talks are between DEQ Director Steven E. Chester and Dow officials, with Lt. Gov. John Cherry acting as a facilitator. A target date of Oct. 31 has been set to finish discussions on a strategy to address dioxins in Midland, along the Tittabawassee River floodplain and in the Saginaw River and bay.
Dow spokeswoman Anne M. Ainsworth said Dow and DEQ officials have agreed not to discuss the meetings in public.
"I wouldn't begin to speculate on what the best resolution is in any of these areas," Ainsworth said.
"We don't know yet what, if anything, needs to be done in the Tittabawassee floodplain, so we can't possibly speculate on what needs to be done, if anything, in the Saginaw River and bay."
Pat Spitzley, DEQ spokesman in Lansing, said the group has met four times since May, and talks are "going well."
Spitzley also would not say what's being discussed, but said closed-door meetings to decide on corrective actions for industrial pollution are typical.
She said state law gives Dow the option of contesting the state standards, and proposing to clean up the dioxins to a less stringent level based on scientific studies.
Ainsworth said Dow is spending nearly $25 million on human and animal studies "to determine if there's a problem" with dioxins in the Tittabawassee River floodplain.
DEQ Director Chester will allow for public comment on a plan before it's finalized by his agency, Spitzley said. She said the high-level meetings aren't a sign that the DEQ is backing down.
"I can understand that people are frustrated and they want action and they want to move forward," she said.
"We do too, it's just how to get there, I think, sometimes is the issue. We take our responsibility and our charge for clean air, clean water and the environment very seriously."
DEQ officials say a cleanup of the Saginaw River and bay in future years could follow a process similar to a $28.2 million Natural Resources Damages Settlement in 1998.
In that case, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, and the federal and state governments sued Bay City, Saginaw and General Motors over contamination of the Saginaw River and bay.
GM paid most of the money, which was used to dredge Saginaw River hot spots contaminated with PCBs, restore wildlife habitat and build boat launches.
Michelle Hurd Riddick and other members of the Lone Tree Council, a Bay City area environmental group, have been fighting to get Dow to dredge the Tittabawassee River of dioxins, a project that could cost Dow up to $100 million, according to Midland officials.
She said the contamination found in the Saginaw River and bay demonstrates that dioxin pollution is a watershed issue.
Hurd Riddick and others with the Lone Tree Council fear that Dow is negotiating a sweetheart deal with the state to address dioxins from the Tittabawassee River out to the Saginaw Bay.
She said Saginaw Bay residents need to demand that the state hold Dow to its operating license.
"Any solutions to the Saginaw River have to include addressing the extensive, pervasive concentrations in the Tittabawassee River, because it will always be a source of contamination to the Saginaw River and bay," Hurd Riddick said.
Tittabawassee first
The state has focused its efforts so far on dealing with the contamination in the Tittabawassee River floodplain, which is as high as 80 times the state residential standard.
The EPA grant will fund the collection of 135 samples of sediments, floodplain soils and beach soils in the Saginaw River and bay and the Shiawassee River, another tributary.
DEQ officials say they don't have enough data yet to address the dioxin levels discovered so far in the Saginaw River and bay, and the upcoming round of testing probably won't be the final assessment.
Resources have been focused nearer to Midland because soil testing for dioxins costs about $1,200 per sample, compared to sampling for PCBs, which costs about $200 per test.
So warning signs and hand-washing stations along shoreline areas, already installed in Midland, aren't coming to the Bay City area anytime soon. But the dioxin levels discovered so far on the Saginaw River and bay are a cause for concern, DEQ officials say.
What's known so far comes from samples by the DEQ and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, gathered as recently as last year.
High concentrations were found in soils at the Bay City State Recreation Area in Bangor Township, Kaelber-Matlock said.
The readings were 220 parts per trillion at 2 inches depth and 340 parts per trillion at 15 inches depth, both at the southern end of the park in exposed bottomlands, away from a public beach area, Brouillet said.
At Crow Island State Wildlife Refuge along M-13 in Saginaw, readings were as high as 200 parts per trillion.
Previous sampling by the Army Corps in 1998 also has shown levels of about 200 parts per trillion in the Saginaw River shipping channel, decreasing further out into the bay, Kaelber-Matlock said.
The results of a new round of dioxin sampling by the Army Corps is set to be released in a few weeks, said Pam Horner, a Corps' physical scientist in Detroit. The sampling was done as part of ongoing plans to dredge the Saginaw River for shipping. A containment facility for spoils is proposed for an area straddling Bay and Saginaw counties.
The EPA testing will run from the city of Saginaw, down the river into Bay City and about four miles out into the Saginaw Bay, Taylor said. The results should be out next summer.
- Jeff Kart covers the environment and politics for The Times. He can be reached at 894-9639.
© 2004 Bay City Times
For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawasse River Watch web site www.trwnews.net for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga. . The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The source organization's web site link is listed to the right of the article, visit often for other news in our area. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.