Thursday, September 4, 2003

Environmentalists and residents have repeatedly called on Dow Chemical Co. to do more to address dioxin contamination in the Tittabawassee floodplain. Last month, the state’s environmental agency, a judge and the Midland-based chemical giant itself agreed it needed to do more.

Now Dow must put action behind its pledge to address

contamination along the Tittabawassee. Dow can’t expect citizens to trust its efforts if it won’t do much more than install hand-washing stations at parks and refuse to pay for health screenings.

Likewise, Dow’s critics must not place unreasonable demands on the company, a major Michigan employer. Critics can’t have it both ways. They can’t refuse to accept Dow’s help—financial or otherwise—to study dioxin contamination and then criticize the company for not doing enough.

Yet there is consensus that Dow needs to step up its efforts.

The state Department of Environmental Quality reviewed Dow’s preliminary plan to address the dioxin concerns and said it didn’t go far enough. State officials said that wasn’t unusual, and the DEQ intends to meet with Dow officials to help limit exposure in the floodplain. Last night, Dow officials met with residents to discuss its preliminary plans. The state also wants Dow to expand the scope of its soil testing and continues to do its own tests. This week, Dow announced it is funding a study by Michigan State University and the National Food Safety and Toxicology Center of wildlife in the floodplain.

Meanwhile, Saginaw County Circuit Court Judge Leopold Borrello ruled last month that residents could move forward with a request to have Dow pay for medical screenings. Borrello dismissed other parts of the residents’ suit, including making Dow responsible for other contamination, and hasn’t ruled on whether he will allow class-action status in the dispute.

Experts say the health effects of dioxin exposure are inconclusive. But there is enough evidence linking dioxin to cancer and birth defects to lead any reasonable person to minimize exposure. And while testing for dioxin in the region continues, there is no dispute that contamination in some stretches of the flood plain exceed acceptable levels—by as much as 80 times.

Washing after handling soil is important. Limiting exposure, especially among children, is crucial. Avoiding eating fish and game from the Tittabawassee and its flood plain are also common sense precautions. Yet those are all short-term precautions to avoiding exposure as the full impact of contamination is under review. Long-term answers to health questions and on how to best remove the contamination are harder to come by.

A Dow spokesperson conceded that the company knows it must do more to address dioxin concerns. Dow should fully accept the state’s suggestions and accept all reasonable suggestions from residents in the floodplain—perhaps even take them a step further to parry the distrustful environment, part of which is of its own making.

On some level, however, citizens also have to accept Dow’s assistance, with some skepticism, and not make unreasonable demands for a problem that is historic. Cat-calls by residents when current Dow officials speak or knee-jerk refusals to consider the company’s offers aren’t productive.

The goal now is to limit exposure and prevent a bad situation from becoming worse—for those property owners in the floodplain and for the company that stands the most to lose in a prolonged and expensive dispute. There’s no shame in residents and the company working together with the state on a problem that still poses more questions than answers.

© 2003 Saginaw News