THE SAGINAW NEWS

A top government scientist says a toxic ''hot spot'' found in the Saginaw River near Wickes Park in Saginaw could represent the highest level of dioxin contamination ever recorded in the nation's river and lake systems.

As Midland's Dow Chemical Co. prepares to clean up the site next week, officials continue to debate the level of danger it represents.

''There may be more surprises out there,'' said Milton Clark, senior health and science adviser at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Chicago branch. ''I'd be surprised if there's not more surprises out there.''

Record levels

A crew testing the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers discovered the sample measuring 1.6 million parts per trillion -- a level nearly 20 times higher than any other find recorded in the EPA archives.

''We're still saying we can't find numbers anywhere close to this particular value,'' Clark said. ''We're looking at historical databases and I've sent out messages (to the scientific community), but nobody is saying (they've heard of a higher level).''

The next-closest find also may have originated from Dow. Last year, the same river-testing initiative that led to the Wickes Park discovery unearthed a sample measuring 87,000 parts per trillion in the Tittabawassee River from a spot slightly more than a mile south of Smith's Crossing in Midland.

State guidelines require corrective action on environmental contamination measuring above 1,000 parts per trillion. Michigan's state average for dioxin in soil is seven parts per trillion.

Dow has spent much of the year planning and executing the removal of three dioxin ''hot spots'' -- including the 87,000 parts per trillion find -- discovered along a six-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee River downstream of the chemical plant.

Now company officials say they're gearing up to remove the latest find from the Saginaw River.

Crews plan to use an abandoned boat launch in Wickes Park as a base for the remediation effort, said Dow spokesman John C. Musser.

The work will begin next week and finish by mid-December, Musser said. Officials haven't decided how they will remove the sediment from the riverbed, but the effort likely will involve some form of dredging.

The contaminated zone is beneath 12 feet of water. The exact dimensions aren't known, although Musser said additional samples taken near the original test showed no elevated levels.

''We don't think it's that large,'' he said.

A foot deeper than that sample, the soil came back at levels that barely registered, Musser said.

''We don't believe there's any imminent or significant human health or environmental threat,'' he said.

That statement is up for debate between various public and scientific officials.

Quick reaction

Officials at the Michigan Department of Community Health were worried enough about last week's announcement that they extended a fish consumption advisory already in effect for the Tittabawassee River to include the entire Saginaw River and a portion of Saginaw Bay.

''When we saw that high of a level, we wanted to immediately warn citizens,'' said James McCurtis Jr., spokesman for the Health Department. ''Our No. 1 concern is public safety.''

The notice warns against eating carp, catfish and white bass -- fish that feed near the riverbed where contaminants are buried -- and alerts women of child-bearing age and children against eating certain types of other fish.

The advisory is indefinite for the roughly 50-mile-long section of the waterways, McCurtis said.

The department first issued the Tittabawassee River fish consumption advisory in 1978, with some modifications since then.

''If it's ever lifted, we're going to be sure the public's health is not at risk,'' McCurtis said. ''That means a thorough cleaning and investigation.''

Many scientists agree consuming fish is the most likely way humans would become exposed to the Wickes Park contamination.

Not everyone agrees on the level of alarm it raises.

Musser points to a 2006 dioxin study performed by University of Michigan researchers that concludes a small but mathematically insignificant link exists between people living near contaminated waters and higher levels of dioxin-like chemicals in their blood.

The $15 million probe determined that age was the largest factor. People are exposed to small amounts of dioxin through various avenues, and over the length of a lifetime, those numbers add up.

Eating fish or game from contaminated areas is a larger contributor than most, although U-M scientists concluded the diet still represents ''a small relationship'' to dioxin in the bloodstream.

However, officials at the EPA and state Department of Environmental Quality say the public shouldn't downplay the danger because of the intensity of contamination found in Wickes Park.

'Beyond the debate'

''The risk of public health is equal to any river (contamination) we've ever studied,'' said Clark, whose EPA Region 5 office also serves Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. ''We're especially concerned about women and children who may be consuming (fish) frequently.''

His DEQ counterparts agree.

''This is beyond the debate of whether there's an immediate health risk,'' said Robert McCann, DEQ spokesman. ''Not when you're looking at levels that high.''

McCann said ''the good news is that we found it'' and assured citizens that Dow, the DEQ and EPA will work together to eliminate the threat.

The three entities collaborate on all remediation decisions but Dow funds the clean-up.

David H. Garabrant, the U-M medicine and epidemiology professor who led the dioxin probe, agreed with Musser that citizens aren't in any immediate danger because of the find.

''If it's sitting at the bottom of the river and there's no pathway for it getting into people's bodies, there shouldn't be a concern,'' he said. ''The fish monitoring that is done in the Saginaw River and the lower Tittabawassee River is the best way to access what the human contamination risk is.''

People should heed the environmental warnings and trust that environmental authorities will keep the public safe, he said.

''I don't think we have evidence that people are being affected in an adverse way,'' Garabrant said. ''On the other hand, I also put a lot of stock in the (fish consumption advisory).

''It is a hot spot. Let's clean it up, be aware of what's going on, be cautious about fishing in that reach of the river, and do what the state and EPA require to clean it up.''

Drinking water in Saginaw won't expose citizens to the contaminated sites discovered in the river system.

Saginaw's water supply comes from Lake Huron, at White Stone Point in Au Gres, well north of where the Saginaw River empties into the Bay. The city serves 180,000 customers in Saginaw and nearby counties.

Mapping the danger

Clark said the number of ''hot spots'' uncovered over the past year during the study -- dubbed GeoMorph -- suggests that crews could find more contamination.

When Dow-sponsored Ann Arbor Technical Services finishes its survey, it will have analyzed the entire 22-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee River and the first six miles of the Saginaw River.

The initiative is part of Dow's work plans for cleaning dioxin along the river system. The DEQ requires the company to measure the scope of contamination downstream.

McCann said the Wickes Park discovery could prompt officials to study the rest of the waterway leading into the Saginaw Bay.

''While this is high, there may be higher levels yet,'' Clark said.

Clark said he is eager to analyze the chemical makeup of the Wickes Park discovery.

''It's somewhat surprising to see those levels so far (from Dow's plant),'' he said. ''You would expect to see some dilution over that 23 miles.''

He didn't want to speculate how the highly concentrated contamination survived the long journey downstream.

Dow officials say the Wickes Park find fits the profile of ''historical contamination'' that resulted from waste material released from Dow's chemical plant at the turn of the 20th century.

EPA authorities say any toxic finds could have settled into the river as late as 30 years ago.

''Weekly, (Dow) began discharging sludge in the late 1800s,'' said Greg Rudloff, the EPA's Region 5 corrective action project manager. ''That process continued with some modifications until the 1970s.''

By that point, regulations ended the environmentally-unfriendly processes that Dow and other chemical companies practiced, he said.

Residents can hear more about the find and discuss related issues when Dow and DEQ officials host the quarterly dioxin meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Horizons Conference Center in Saginaw Township. v

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

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