EPA officials waiting for dioxin directions
 by Jeff Kart | The Bay City Times Thursday May 07, 2009, 8:12 AM

Cleanup set to begin at Saginaw County park

Talks over a comprehensive cleanup of dioxins in the Saginaw Bay watershed remain on hold.

But work on the project continues.

Federal officials at a community meeting on the dioxin issue held Wednesday at Delta College said they're awaiting word from Washington, D.C., on whether talks will continue with Midland-based Dow Chemical Co. on addressing toxic contamination in the watershed from historic company operations along the Tittabawassee River.

Discussions between Dow and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were suspended in March, and EPA officials in Chicago are awaiting the results of a fact-finding mission launched shortly after by Lisa Jackson, President Barack Obama's new EPA administrator.

"We hope for direction soon," said Mick Hans, an EPA spokesman.

Dow Chemical officials were invited to speak at the meeting, but none came forward.

Meanwhile, EPA-supervised work to scoop contaminated soil from a Saginaw County park along the Tittabawassee is scheduled to begin next week, weather-permitting.

And the state Department of Community Health has launched a program to educate tens of thousands of people on the right kinds of fish to eat to lower health risks from dioxin and other chemical contamination.

Brian Schlieger, an on-scene coordinator with the EPA in Chicago, said Dow-funded work on the West Michigan Park area in Saginaw Township will involve digging out a foot of soil, replacing that with a foot of clean fill, installing new playground equipment and elevating that equipment by a foot to lessen the impact from future flooding.

The park already has been closed in preparation for the digging, and is due to re-open in mid-July after new grass has been planted.

A similar project was completed last year on Riverside Boulevard in Saginaw, Schlieger said.

Kory Groetsch, a toxicologist with the Department of Community Health, said his agency has launched a program with $75,000 in EPA funding to raise awareness about fish that are safe to eat - and those that shouldn't be eaten - from the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and Saginaw Bay.

It's an extension of a long-running state fish consumption advisory guide that has fallen out of circulation in recent years due to budget cuts and is now only accessible online.

The idea is to target the most sensitive populations, including children and women of child-bearing age, along with anglers who regularly eat fish from the rivers and bay.

Four partners - the Bay and Saginaw county health departments, the First Ward Community Center in Saginaw and the Bay City State Recreation Area's Visitor Center in Bangor Township - have committed $77,000 worth of in-kind support.

"The Saginaw River is a year-round fishery and a diverse population is fishing it," Groetsch said. "People are fishing for sustenance. There are some people who just need food and they're not aware" of fish consumption advisories.

The new fliers - much easier to decipher than the state's lengthy fish consumption guides - will be distributed to clinics, hospitals and doctors' offices, and handed out to people with poles in their hands, he said.

Bay City state park officials also will help develop a curriculum to teach fourth- and sixth-graders about what fish are safe to eat, and how to reduce contamination by trimming fat from fish and cooking it properly.

Grant money will be used to pay to bus students to the park, Groetsch said.

The program will last until September 2010.

 COMMENTS (2)Post a comment Posted by mehalski on 05/07/09 at 10:43AM Sounds like a great public education effort. Would have been even better if we as taxpayers did not fund it and the company that caused the problem funded it...

Posted by misweety55 on 05/07/09 at 2:47PM MDN had an article in their Accent magazine recently about the Dow Chemical spokesperson's sister-in-law/nanny. It seems their own spokesperson avoids Midland's contaminated air, soil and water by now living 30 miles away. Gee, you mean it's safe for our kids, but not her children to actually live IN the City of Midland or Midland Township? Apparently the chemical Giant Dow considers the health of the lowly "contaminated ones" expendable when it comes to cleaning up after themselves based on cost vs. benefit. Autoimmune diseases, lymphomas, sarcomas and neoplasms abound and now the best Dow Chemical can do is to argue against anyone's science that wasn't bought lock, stock and barrel by them? Such a sad situation to live in Midland or to have been born and raised there.

http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2009/05/epa_officials_waiting_for_diox.html#more

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