Friday, December 12, 2003

ANDY GRIMM
THE SAGINAW NEWS

Farmland along the Tittabawassee River is safe for growing crops, but residents should avoid eating livestock raised in the floodplain, state officials say.

Addressing a group of 50 farmers Thursday at Freeland Elementary School, state agriculture officials explained that while plants don't absorb the dioxin that has polluted a 22-mile stretch of the river, soil and dust contaminated with the chemical likely isn't good for livestock -- or humans.

State tests on corn, wheat and other plants taken from the floodplain showed that little dioxin is absorbed by crops, though a sampling of eggs from chickens and fish-eating birds and mammals living in the floodplain contained significant dioxin concentrations, said Michigan State University toxicologist Paul D. Jones.

Dioxin molecules bind to particles of soil and organic material, and are ingested or inhaled by animals as they graze. For humans, the main threat is breathing that same dust or eating animals that have built up high levels of the chemical, Jones said.

Small amounts of the chemical may cling to the roots or leaves of plants, but rinsing them may remove much of the chemical, Jones said. State testing on fish and birds in the floodplain has found dioxin levels high enough to affect the animals' reproductive systems.

Farmer Lyle LeCronier remained skeptical after the meeting.

"I can't see where it affects anything," LeCronier said. "We've got more deer than ever out where I live. Yes, (dioxin) is a concern, but where are the effects?"

The floodplain fields represent less than 1 percent of the farmland in Saginaw, Bay and Midland counties, and only portions of it are likely to have very high levels of dioxin, said Brian Hughes, a state Department of Agriculture toxicologist.

However, farmers with land along the Tittabawassee where dioxin levels are high may have to change how they use the land. Farming methods that create large amounts of blowing dust or end up moving large amounts of soil out of the floodplain may have to change, Hughes said.

"It's a difficult sell, because farmers have been doing what they're doing now sometimes for 50 years," Hughes said. "They're going to be affected."

The dioxin, a byproduct of chlorine manufacturing and other processes, likely was carried into the soil by waste water from Dow Chemical Co.'s Midland complex, Jones said.

The state Department of Environmental Quality and researchers Dow hired will continue testing soil and wildlife in the floodplain.

Federal programs will pay "rent" to farmers who agree to take farmland that meets certain requirements and plant it with trees or other plants, or revert the land into wetlands, said Will Sears, director of conservation for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Midland County bureau.

Although farmers may not fear dioxin contamination, economics already have prompted many of them along the river to participate in the conservation programs and to use the no-till planting practices the state recommends, Sears said.

"For most people, it just boils down to being cheaper," he said. t

Andy Grimm is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9688.

© 2003 Saginaw News.