Keith
KingDr. David Garabrant, of the University of Michigan, talks about dioxin in
2005.As debate rages on over a $15 million dioxin study of the Tittabawassee and
Saginaw rivers, environmental agencies are close to a deal with Dow Chemical Co.
to clean up the waterways. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
hopes to sign off on a dioxin cleanup plan with their federal counterparts and
Midland-based Dow by year’s end. Dow is responsible for the pollution.But David H. Garabrant, a University of Michigan medicine and epidemiology professor, led a 2006 probe that found little relationship between dioxin levels in the human bloodstream and people living near the river system. The study was funded by Dow.
Garabrant was scheduled to speak this morning at a Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce Percolator Breakfast at Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State, in Saginaw Township.
Garabrant and Wednesday his team has met with DEQ representatives since winter to go over the U-M study and verify its conclusions, the professor said.
DEQ officials, meanwhile, say the study shows “good information,” but won’t have any bearing on remediation plans.
“His report is being used to draw conclusions it wasn’t meant to draw,” said Robert McCann, DEQ spokesman. “The bottom line is, the report is good information, but it’s not any substitute for establishing a cleanup plan.”
Garabrant said he feels his talks with the DEQ have cleared up misconceptions that surrounded the study early on.
“We’ve been scrutinized, but I think we’ve done everything people have asked for,” he said. “The study now has a very large track record and widespread acceptance. We have agreement (with the DEQ) that the data is appropriate.”
The probe’s findings are included in 14 peer review publications, he said.
Garabrant said the study is ongoing. His research team is including in the study’s data sets estimates of concentrations of dioxin in fish found in the river stream, he said.
The professor said he planned to discuss the probe’s progress at today’s gathering.
Cleanup coming?
McCann said his agency on Friday finished remediation negotiations with Dow Chemical and a proposal could come in less than a month.
Officials from the DEQ and EPA released a joint statement earlier this week stating the talks “will likely result in a proposed agreement on an administrative order on consent to comprehensively address dioxin and other Dow Chemical contamination along the Tittabawassee River and Saginaw River and Bay.”
Officials from all the parties could sign an agreement by Oct. 15.
“We spent quite a few months in negotiations with the agencies,” said Mary Draves, Dow’s spokeswoman. “We are committed to finding a path forward.”
If Dow signs the pact, the environmental agencies will make it publicly available, followed by a 30-day public participation process that includes a comment period and public meeting. McCann said the public meeting could happen in November.
The EPA and DEQ would then have the option to sign the pact or make changes. McCann said a best-case scenario involves a finished deal in December.
The news follows months of delays. Talks with the Midland chemical giant were to conclude Aug. 25, but negotiators decided to extend them to Sept. 25.
The entities suspended dialogue in March and resumed in May under the federal Superfund process.
Details on the topics that Dow, the DEQ and EPA have negotiated are contained in a June 2009 EPA fact sheet posted online at www.epa.gov/region5/sites/dowchemical/pdfs/down-negotiation-fs-200906.pdf.