Thursday, March 03, 2005
JEREMIAH STETTLERTHE SAGINAW NEWS
The state has a new batch of dioxin data, this time for the Shiawassee and Saginaw rivers.
Department of Environmental Quality officials confirmed Wednesday they have re-ceived preliminary results for about 100 soil samples taken in the Saginaw watershed last fall.
One sample, extracted from the river bottom near the Genesee bridge in downtown Saginaw, reveals the highest dioxin concentration yet in mid-Michigan: 16,000 parts per trillion.
State officials say another 111 samples will arrive in June.
But don't pass judgment yet, warned Al Taylor, senior geologist for the state's Waste and Hazardous Materials Division. The results are preliminary and haven't undergone the scrutiny of an internal review, he said.
"We need to make sure they are bomb proof," he said. "We don't have the luxury of being wrong when we release a report like that."
Taylor said a cursory review of the results has given him no reason to believe the 16,000 parts per trillion number is inaccurate.
Most of the samples fall below the state standard of 90 parts per trillion -- many are below 5 parts per trillion. Only one other test crossed into four digits, with a reading of 1,020 parts per trillion at the mouth of Saginaw Bay.
State officials commissioned the samples last fall to broaden their dioxin data outside the Tittabawassee River into the less-charted Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay.
The Shiawassee River also was included in the project to determine how much dioxin the river contributes to the watershed.
Backed financially by a $180,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant, the state conducted soil sampling in October to gauge levels of various toxic chemicals, including dioxin. Preliminary results show elevated dioxin levels near the Sixth Street freighter turning basin in Saginaw; the Middlegrounds, a landfill-containing island in Bay City; and at the mouth of the Saginaw River.
At the turning basin, the state found 377 parts per trillion. At the Middlegrounds, samples revealed 162 and 210 parts per trillion. At the mouth of the Saginaw River, levels ranged from 212 to 1,020 parts per trillion.
Taylor said his department will release a full report this fall. In the meantime, officials must review, analyze and map out the data. v
Jeremiah Stettler is a staff writer at the Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9685.
© 2005 Saginaw News
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.