Clean Watershed Campaign

Dredging and drinking water quality

Recently EPA notified the public that no dioxins or furans were found in the drinking water extracted from the Saginaw Bay. This is really, really good news. If you’ve been following the issue you know that Kathy Henry was derided by Jim Koski of Saginaw County and Rick Hayes of Tittabawassee Twp for being a mere housewife for being concerned about the quality of the Saginaw water supply. Read more »

Dream escaped

Dream Escaped
Kathy Henry

When my husband and I bought our 3-acre Tittabawassee Riverfront property in 1984, we were thrilled. Waterfront property is scarce in Saginaw County, and we felt that we were one of the lucky ones. We could never have been so wrong. Read more »

Heads up City on the Bay

In a recent Saginaw News article, a member of the CAG voiced  concern about the fate of the Saginaw Bay in the negotiated agreement between EPA, MDEQ and Dow Chemical–And well she should. Since 2002 Dow has attempted twice, while behind closed doors to be released from obligations to cleanup the Saginaw River and Bay. The first attempt was in 2002 via a consent order negotiated behind closed doors during the Engler years. This consent order was deemed ‘illegal and fatally flawed’ by the AG’s office but was supported by Engler, his DEQ Director, Russ Harding, and the City of Midland whose Mayor, Drummond Black intervened in court in support of the illegal consent order. Read more »

The CAG

Twenty-three citizens will comprise the EPA Community Advisory Group (CAG). These residents were chosen by a 6-member steering committee that was nominated by anonymous members of the community who submitted names to the EPA.  The decision to utilize a steering committee to select the CAG members was decided by EPA and or their contractor. The CAG process, predetermined by EPA was not well executed from the day it was rolled out to the community on August 15^th. More on this soon.  Here is this community’s CAG: Read more »

Community Fact Sheet Online

Dr. deFur has posted new items to his website at Environmental Stewardship Concepts including the Community Fact Sheet on the Administrative Order on Consent negotiated between EPA, MDEQ and Dow. This fact sheet lays out initial concerns and comments about the AOC and how it could be made better.

A number of citizens took the time over Dr. deFur’s visit to ask him about health effects, in particular, cancers associated with dioxin: He posted a number of links on the ESC web site addressing the issue.

The community fact sheet is available here and is also available, along with the other links, at the Environmental Stewards website. Of note is a short list of studies that focus on the toxicity of dioxin.

Michelle Hurd Riddick
Lone Tree Council
michdave@aol.com

A housewife, a nurse and a history professor.

The EPA and Dow have negotiated — are you ready – an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC). This is the blueprint for a Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and bay cleanup, minus the method of cleanup AND the number to which Dow has to reduce its dioxin footprint, for example, Michigan’s 90 ppt (rather high) or 5 ppt, closer to background.

Dow has signed the AOC, but not the EPA. Read more »

The Environment Report producing series on Dow’s Dioxin…

The Environment Report from the University of Michigan is doing a week-long series of reports on the contamination of the Midland/Saginaw/Bay City area by Dow Chemical. Read more »

A chicken and egg story.

This is a story about how the simplest things can turn toxic based on the contamination in the ground we live on. Yes, despite the assurances of Dow and their well compensated representatives, the toxins they bathed the area in for over a century DO travel up the food chain to humans. Read more »