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Groups Criticize
Dow-Granholm Dioxin Deal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- January 24, 2005

Leading citizens and environmental groups today sharply criticized an agreement between Dow Chemical Company and the Granholm Administration, saying it fails to deliver a cleanup of dioxin contamination in the Saginaw Bay basin.

"This agreement is a failure," said Michelle Hurd Riddick, a Lone Tree Council member who lives in the basin. "It's promoted as results-oriented, but the only result will be further delays, more studies, and it does little to protect the health of residents.

"Dow's dioxin contamination is a public health threat, economic mess and Dow needs to start cleanup now. We are terribly disappointed. We know Governor Granholm cares about children, dioxin's most vulnerable population. And kids are not guinea pigs who should be forced to await more years of testing and data collection by Dow Chemical."

"All this agreement promises is a house cleaning, some lawn services and more studies," said James Clift, Michigan Environmental Council Policy Director. "It doesn't even rise to the level of a short-term fix. It's no fix at all and, in fact, moves us backward on a public health issue of monumental importance. Instead of imposing cleanup deadlines, it focuses on Dow's strategy of more study, more public relations, more delay."

In December, the Lone Tree Council, Michigan Environmental Council, Clean Water Action, Ecology Center, CACC and Sierra Club outlined a seven-point set of criteria to guide dioxin cleanup by Dow. The groups Monday, along with the Tittabawassee River Watch, Citizens Against Toxic Substances, Environmental Health Watch and PIRGIM, said they would continue to pressure Governor Granholm on Dow's dioxin contamination.

Riddick and Clift noted that the Dow-Granholm deal agreement derails dioxin cleanup timelines and initiatives previously outlined by the Department of Environmental Quality. And the new agreement fails to meet any of the environmental groups' cleanup guidelines, they said. The guidelines are:

  1. Will the final goal of any cleanup result in rivers that we can swim in, fish in, and know are safe as drinking water sources?
  2. Will the public have a strong, direct role in ensuring a comprehensive cleanup is undertaken?
  3. Will the cleanup begin immediately? Are the most contaminated areas that affect public health and Michigan's waters being cleaned up first? What is the specific cleanup schedule?
  4. Will the current lawful cleanup standard of 90 parts per trillion be used?
    If not, what scientific basis exists for using a standard less protective?
  5. Will contaminated soils and sediments be removed using methods, procedures and containment sites that ensure dioxin poisons will not be reintroduced into our neighborhoods by the next major flood event?
  6. Will the dioxin cleanup agreement be legally enforceable? What, if any, impact will it have on other existing cleanup agreements between Dow and the state? What are the consequences if Dow or the state fail to comply with the agreement?
  7. Will the cleanup agreement protect economic growth, public enjoyment and sustainable development along the riverfront into the future? Or is it a short-term fix that leaves pollution behind for future generations to deal with?

Dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals know to man, has been discovered in the Saginaw Bay watershed in numbers as much as 80 to 125 times the level deemed safe for Michigan families. Yet families in Saginaw Bay watershed living in three counties along the 58 miles of dioxin contaminated rivers leading to Lake Huron are once again told by the state of Michigan that they must wait for a cleanup. While the Granholm-Dow agreement confirms Dow's responsibility for the contamination, cleanup implementation will continue to languish for years because of Dow's manipulation and political power.

For more information:

A copy of the agreement (see "Quicklinks" at right)

Tittabawassee River Watch

Ecology Center

Michigan Environmental Council

Sierra Club

 

Contact:

Michelle Hurd Riddick
Lone Tree Council
(989) 799-3313

James Clift
Michigan Environmental Council
(517) 256-0553

 

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