An employee of The Dow Chemical Co. is taking on the Midland-based chemical giant's contaminant testing in the Tittabawassee River, claiming in a lawsuit that tests were flawed and that she was demoted for raising concerns.

Priscilla Denney alleges in the lawsuit that Dow submitted toxin data to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality that she claims was found by a data validation firm to have "major flaws."

The lawsuit was filed in Saginaw County's 10th Circuit Court. The company responded Thursday, stating Denney's assertions on the data's quality and reliability are unfounded, and that an internal review of the issues found her concerns to be without merit.

In the lawsuit, Denney claims Dow ignored concerns of the Germantown, Maryland-based Project Enhancement Corp. that were expressed in calls and documents that she received.

The suit states Denney received a phone call from a Project Enhancement Corp. employee who reported "major flaws which existed with the data" collected and analyzed by consultants to Dow.

Project Enhancement Corp. then sent Denney's superior a six-page report detailing flaws with the data, the lawsuit states. After reporting the concern to her superior last November, Denney claims her superior ordered her "to cease all duties pertaining to the validation process, despite the fact that it was the plaintiff's duty to ensure that data analyzed on samples taken from 'Reach-D' were validated."

Reach-D is an area located next to Dow's Michigan Operations site in Midland that is known to be contaminated with dioxins, furans and other contaminants.

Denney claims in the suit that she was demoted on Jan. 11 of this year to "perform menial computer tasks" to ensure "she would be silenced and would not be an obstacle to the submission of unvalidated data to the MDEQ."

Dow spokeswoman Jennifer Heronema said the company will file an official response to the lawsuit by the Dec. 18 deadline.

"In her complaint, Denney alleges quality and reliability issues with data collected on behalf of Dow and submitted to the MDEQ," Heronema said. "This is simply wrong."

The samples were not taken to measure dioxin or furans, she said.

"The samples referred to in the complaint (approximately 15) were collected as part of a preliminary effort to identify other potential chemicals of interest in the upper Tittabawassee River that may have resulted from Dow's historic manufacturing processes," she said.

In response to the concerns raised by Denney, Heronema said Dow hired an independent consultant who concluded that no issues had been identified that would have any negative impact on data quality or reliability.

"It's important to note that Dow notified the MDEQ about Denney's concerns months before her complaint was filed," Heronema said. "The process used to confirm the data quality and reliability was appropriate for this type of project, and we stand firmly behind the accuracy of the data submitted."

Prior to filing the Circuit Court complaint, Denney, still a Dow employee, raised concerns internally within Dow. Heronema said Dow's Office of Ethics and Compliance oversaw a thorough review of the issues, and the concerns were determined to be without foundation.

Dow today also is defending itself against claims in a confidential U.S. Environmental Protection Agency memo that the company concealed the dangers of dioxin contamination in local waterways. The Detroit Free Press reported the memo states Dow impeded state efforts to force a cleanup, concealed data and tried to keep information confidential rather than public.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Steve Chester said the memo was off base, the Free Press reported. Dow spokesman John Musser said the memo shows a misunderstanding by the EPA of progress that was being made at the time.

©Midland Daily News 2007