Environmentalist, Dow agree on pollution study method
Friday, November 03, 2006
CATHY HENG THE SAGINAW NEWS

For once, Terry Miller and Midland's Dow Chemical Co. agree.

Miller, spokesman for the Bay City-based environmentalist group Lone Tree Council, often finds his cause at odds with the chemical company.

Now he is praising Dow's effort to determine levels of dioxins and furans and possibly other related contamination in Midland.

Of 571 property owners asked to participate, 350 agreed to take part in the study. Ten percent refused, and the rest have not yet responded.

Even though the tests could result in the labeling of properties as hazardous sites, Miller says he can't understand why all the owners didn't agree to submit to the study.

"If I were in that situation, I would have been screaming loud and hard to have this done years ago," Miller said. "I have a difficult time deciding why a family wouldn't want to protect themselves from exposure. My guess is there's a concern for property values, but when does money exceed one's health?"

Dow spokesman John C. Musser said he also would submit to the testing if his property were in the study area surrounding the Midland plant.

"I'd want to know," Musser said, "just so I could get to the bottom of these issues and find out what the real problem is."

Contractors from CH2 MHill of Englewood, Colo., began sampling last week to determine the levels of dioxins and furans and other related contaminants in the community. Dioxins and furans are industrial pollutants linked to reproductive problems, weakened immune systems and some forms of cancer in laboratory animals.

The study, which could continue until Dec. 31, is expected to encompass residential, commercial and industrial properties. Dow is collaborating with the state Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"Information generated by the study may be used as part of a process to develop site-specific cleanup criteria for dioxins and furans should there be a need," Musser said.

The study

Crews are collecting surface soil samples from 145 defined areas along lines chosen for their wind patterns away from the plant.

Objectives include:

t Determining the local distribution of soil properties that might influence bioavailability -- the ability of substances to absorb into the body -- of dioxins and furans.

t Developing information about the distribution of contamination of Midland surface soil.

t Determining whether additional Dow-related hazardous substances are present in Midland soil.

Maintaining anonymity of private property owners.

Anonymity isn't a guarantee, however.

Once an owner is aware of results, that information is sufficient to know if the property is considered a "facility" under state law. An owner of a parcel labeled as a "facility" has the obligation to not make contamination worse, provide written notice to a person acquiring an interest in the property and to obey restrictions on relocating contaminated soil.

The properties sampled are grouped into "stations" -- or units of study -- that consist of up to 10 properties. Figures from the samples taken within the larger "station" are public information.

Results likely will come sometime in 2007, said Jim Sygo, state DEQ deputy director.

If results show contamination levels exceeding 1,000 parts per trillion, Dow and the state DEQ must determine the next appropriate steps for a remedy.

When a property is sampled, residents are told how to get results for the sample station. Results are available about 90 days after sampling.

Among those sampled are 14 city-owned parcels -- parks and greenbelts -- as well as hundreds of individual properties, said Noel Bush, Midland utilities director. Bush has spent more than 90 hours with Dow and state officials coordinating the hundreds of digs throughout the city.

"As well as testing for dioxins, the study hopes to identify soil types such as clay, sand or sandy loam and determine how dioxins react in each," he said. "The first ring of the study closest to the plant on the identified transcepts (radiating lines) will also test for a litany of other chemicals outlined by the federal government."

He said that list runs to "pages with hundreds" of other chemicals, such as PCBs and mercury -- which they don't expect to find, he said.

Testers plan to pull back the sod and test a small layer underneath for the dioxins, Bush said. No one knows what the tests will find.

"If you brought in 6 inches of good black dirt to grow your lawn, any dioxins are not at the surface," Bush said. "If you have rototilled the garden, dioxin has gone away. However, if you have had a campfire in the yard recently, it will show dioxins, since combustion creates dioxin."

No one knows what to expect, but there is a lot of speculation out there, Bush added.

"Some people may have brought in good river bottom silt years ago to cover the garden, and that could test for dioxin," he said.

Musser said it is safe to plant trees and to garden.

"We expect people who are gardening are taking normal precautions, such as washing their hands," he said. "No one is out there eating dirt."

Test's con

Warren B. Crummett, analytical chemist and a Dow Chemical retiree, said there is "no reason" to test at this point.

"I have recently gone over my past experiences with scientists, dioxin scrutiny and studies," he said. "This should have been resolved in the 1980s."

Crummett, author of the book "Decades of Dioxin," said he has "not found anyone directly hurt by dioxin itself. Americans love to be scared to death by something."

Bush said authorities are up in the air over dioxin.

Even the World Health Organization says dioxins are not considered as toxic as once thought. And, Bush said, tests in Michigan have not found an epidemic of illness.

Michigan's residential contact criteria for dioxin in soil is set at 90 parts per trillion. The EPA's action level is 1,000 parts per trillion.

However, Bush said the wild card is humans eating animals that have metabolized dioxin and humans eating fish that may contain dioxin or mercury multiple times per week.

Part of the soil study includes a bioavailability study in which pigs will eat a dough ball containing dioxin to determine how the substance is absorbed into cells, he added.v

Cathy Heng covers Midland County for The Saginaw News. You may reach her at 776-9675. Justin Engel is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9691.
 

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