Clean Watershed Campaign

Another delay on the horizon?

Headline this past week in INSIDE EPA warns the release of  the final dioxin reassessment in December of this year is not likely. In June of 2009, EPA headquarters visited Saginaw, Bay City and Midland to assure the community  of EPA’s commitment to an interim number and  after dozens of years, the release of the much debated, deliberated and argued, Dioxin Reassessment.

Absent current, definitive guidance from EPA, the Great Lakes Bay Region (Chamber of Commerce’s new regional moniker) Saginaw, Bay City and Midland have been grappling and stumbling with Dow Chemical’s dioxin contamination. Last year EPA took over the lead from the DEQ after more than a decade. Many were skeptical and remain so for many reasons—the one bit of consolation was the new administration’s commitment to science and  the release of the Dioxin Reassessment. At a minimum there was hope that science and not politics would finally guide public health protection and an eventual cleanup of Dow’s huge dioxin contamination.  

This appears less certain. Dow Chemical, GE, ACC along with dozens of other industry lobbyists is working over time to stop the release of the dioxin reassessment. Challenging the science, insisting on absolutes and throwing every extraneous issue on the table, industry could easily prevail.

As the Tall SHIPS arrive this week in Bay City for the RACE TO SAVE THE GREAT LAKES, Dow Chemical, one the tall ships sponsors, remains the primary source of dioxin to Lake Huron. Dow Chemical denies the toxicity of dioxin and their lobbyists continue to work against the health of the Tittabawassee and Saginaw River, its residents and wildlife.

Here are some excerpts from INSIDE EPA:  

‘Unlikely’ To Meet Deadline, EPA Urges Narrow SAB Review Of Dioxin Study

Posted: July 14, 2010

EPA is urging a Science Advisory Board (SAB) panel reviewing the agency’s re-assessment of dioxin to focus on the core risk assessment document, not related risk and regulatory documents, saying the agency has been working on the measure for decades and is “really unlikely” to meet Administrator Lisa Jackson’s December 2010 deadline for completing the measure.

….

Jackson in a May 2009 letter to community activists said the agency’s “goal is to issue a final dioxin assessment by the end of 2010.” But Preuss, who oversees the center that crafts assessments for the agency’s key Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database, told the SAB panel that the agency “is really unlikely” to meet Jackson’s goal “unless SAB sends a one-page letter” saying that the dioxin document does not require any changes.

The agency published its current IRIS assessment of dioxin in 1985, and began reassessing the risks of TCDD in 1990. But the reassessment has faced numerous delays and reviews.

In his remarks, Preuss urged the panel to separate any long-term recommendations from those short-term suggestions needed to finalize the document, noting that that “many things” are awaiting the outcome of the assessment, including regulations and site cleanup decisions.

Jackson’s broader dioxin plan includes two other related documents: a set of cleanup targets, known as preliminary remediation goals (PRGs), which were to be published before the agency finalizes the TCDD assessment, and used until that time. The agency has yet to finalize those preliminary numbers, with industry complaining bitterly about the confusion that interim numbers could present.