First soil sampling segment complete

THE SAGINAW NEWS

Dow Chemical Co. is going back to the drawing board on plans to clean up and analyze dioxin contamination along the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers.

The Midland-based company detailed its outline in May, but critics -- including the state Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the local watchdog group Lone Tree Council -- said the decade-long plans need trimming.

Representatives from Dow and the DEQ met with residents Wednesday at the Horizons Conference Center in Saginaw Township to update the situation.

While officials from both sides continue to negotiate potential shortcuts, the project's early stages already are under way.

Workers for Dow-contracted Ann Arbor Technical Services Inc. finished the first 10-day segment of a soil sampling effort Wednesday along six miles of the Tittabawassee River.

"We're hoping to get results from that (sampling) within a few days," said Peter Simon, project manager.

He plans to complete field work for the study in late October, then prepare a report in February 2007.

Al Taylor, a geology specialist with the DEQ, hopes the effort's entire revised schedule is complete by December.

"We're continuing to work on the technical list (of project goals)," he said. "We're looking into other things to be looking for other than dioxins."

DEQ officials don't expect the cleanup to begin for at least another year.

"You have to define the problem before you can correct it," said Jim Sygo, DEQ deputy director. "The hope would be that -- as we come into the spring (of 2007), and when we have a criteria -- we can do that kind of work."

Sygo said a premature river dredging could result in a wasted effort if crews dump the materials into an unknown floodplain only to have it swept back into the mix by a flood.

Dow plans also include analyzing dioxin exposure through airborne dust, fish, small game, garden vegetables and domestic livestock.

The schedule unveiled in May showed work along the Tittabawassee would run through 2012.

In Midland, where contamination spread through airborne emissions, the timeline continued five more years.

The initiative, tagged GeoMorph, is part of the DEQ's requirement that the company measure the scope of contamination downstream.

Along with the soil sampling, researchers will map 22 miles of the Tittabawassee River and six miles of the Saginaw River landscape, analyzing potential changes in water flow because of manmade and natural obstacles.

No price tag is attached yet. v

Justin Engel is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9691.