DEQ says plan to manage river toxins will endanger public

Thursday, October 20, 2005
 By Jeff Kart Bay City Times Writer

State Department of Environmental Quality officials are critical of a management plan for toxic spoils from a Saginaw River dredging project, saying the plan as written will endanger public health and wildlife.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official says he's just received the comments, but vows that any issues will be taken care of before river pilings are deposited on the site, along the Saginaw River on the Bay-Saginaw county line.

"I don't see anything we can't work out," said Terry A. Long, planning branch chief for the Corps in Detroit. "We didn't come this far to stop."

The Lone Tree Council, a Bay City area environmental group, obtained the comments through the state Freedom of Information Act.

Michelle Hurd Riddick, a Lone Tree member, said the documents back up what her group has been saying all along: Plans for the dredging facility have been pushed through by local, state and federal officials before all environmental concerns were studied and addressed.

"The whole permit process for this (Dredged Material Disposal Facility) has put the cart ahead of the horse," Hurd-Riddick said.

The Corps of Engineers, the DEQ and Saginaw County public works officials have worked for years on the project, to remove silt from the navigational channel of the Upper Saginaw River, from Bay City south to Saginaw. Spoils would be piled in a $5 million, 281-acre disposal facility in Frankenlust Township and 300 acres of wetlands would be created in Zilwaukee Township.

The spoils site would be used for 20 years worth of dredgings; river mud would be piled there and water from the spoils would drain back into the river.

Long didn't have an answer as to why environmental concerns are still being worked out this far into the process, with permits already issued and property purchased.

Patricia A. Brandt, program specialist for the DEQ Remediation and Redevelopment Division in Lansing, said the DEQ is committed to resolving the issues with the Corps, but the project can't go forward as proposed. "Significant modifications will be required," Brandt said.

Those changes could significantly delay the start of dredging and increase the cost of construction, the DEQ says. In the written comments, Brandt and other DEQ officials stated that a draft of the Corps operational plan "does not address actions necessary to prevent unacceptable exposure to humans," due to harmful concentrations of dioxins and other contaminants in river sediment. Wildlife also would be exposed to highly contaminated sediments in drainage trenches proposed for construction, the DEQ comments state.

The plan doesn't propose to establish an environmental baseline prior to construction or long-term groundwater monitoring, either, the comments state. Further, the plan says the disposal site will be "described in as-built drawings when completed," but DEQ officials believe the agency should be able to review and approve construction details beforehand.

Hurd-Riddick said nothing should be built until every issue is addressed, and she thinks dredgings need to be taken to a hazardous waste landfill instead of being piled along the river.

"This site is going to be a disaster in 20 years if they are allowed to proceed as is," she said.

Long said the Corps won't construct a facility that's not safe.

"There's an awful lot of people that have worked extremely hard to get this far, so I really feel we will come to some agreement on these issues, to resolve them," he said.

Long said construction is still planned to begin this spring.

- Jeff Kart covers the environment and politics for The Times. He can be reached at 894-9639 or by e-mail at jkart@bc-times.com.
 

For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawassee 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.