December 21, 2002
BY MIKE TYREE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRAVERSE CITY -- A deal that would have allowed Dow Chemical Co. to diminish costly dioxin cleanup at its Midland manufacturing site teetered on the brink of collapse Friday, a state official said.
Officials with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality removed language beneficial to Dow from a proposed consent order, apparently dooming the heavily criticized deal.
"The 831 number will not be offered," said Jim Sygo, DEQ chief of the remediation and redevelopment division. He was referring to an allowable level of dioxin contamination sought by Dow.
Michigan's current acceptable level for dioxin in soil is 90 parts per trillion. Dow, with the support of top DEQ officials, had pushed for 831 parts per trillion. That would have allowed Dow to avoid cleaning up the soil at most of its plant site and in some residential areas of Midland.
Sygo said Friday's change came after considering public comment as well as advice from the Michigan Attorney General's Office that the deal was illegal.
Neil Hawkins, Dow's state environment health and safety leader, said talks were continuing and he was unaware the 831 standard was removed. "We'll move forward and . . . address the concerns of the residents," he said.
Hawkins said a study of the contaminated areas could begin early next year, with results available by late 2003.
Environmentalists had blasted the proposal, accusing top DEQ managers of cutting a sweetheart deal with Dow in the waning days of Republican Gov. John Engler's administration.
Michelle Hurd Riddick, of the environmental group Lone Tree Council, voiced cautious optimism: "It demonstrates that citizens still have recourse, still have a voice." She is among several individuals and groups who sued DEQ officials to stop the deal.
The consent order was to have been signed by Jan. 1.
Soils on and around Dow's Midland site are contaminated, as is a 20-mile swath of the Tittabawassee River floodplain downstream, state studies show.
Dioxins are toxic by-products of Dow's manufacturing and incineration systems and likely have been emitted since the first half of the 20th Century. Dioxins pose a variety of health threats to humans.