Late yesterday the EPA, capitulating to industry, announced it would not be releasing the non-cancer portion of the dioxin reassessment. Shameful! Lone Tree Council Press Release below.
Tags: Class warfare, contamination, Delay, EPA, Health, Lone Tree, politics, pollution, risk
Documents, Eye on the EPA, Press Release | mhr February 1, 2012 | 
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The Ann Arbor based Ecology Center is without a doubt one of Michigan’s finest advocates for children and public health issues – hands down they just rock. Below are their compelling comments to Lisa Jackson to release the dioxin reassessment.
The failure to finalize the document until now represents a political, moral and ethical failure. Dioxin has become the textbook example of how industry can successfully delay science-based progress on toxic chemicals in this country. It has now been 27 years since the first draft was issued.
The Natural Resources Defense Council making the best argument for release of the dioxin reassessment. As an added bonus, NRDC argues in detail why the EPA must stop listening to the disingenuous petition of the chemical industry to once again delay the release.
Clean Water Action calling upon Administrator Jackson to release the dioxin reassessment.
We are concerned that the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and other industry trade associations are once again pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further delay the release of this important document. We believe the American public has a right to know about the health consequences of exposure to dioxin. As these delaying tactics persist, people in communities across the country continue to be exposed to this highly toxic chemical.
Lone Tree Council joining a chorus of environmental and public health advocates calling on Administrator Jackson to finally release the EPA’s long delayed dioxin reassessment.
Tags: accountability, Delay, EPA, Lone Tree, politics
Documents, Eye on the EPA | mhr January 13, 2012 |
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Since EPA’s take over of Dow’s contamination along the rivers, public participation and attendance at meetings has hit an all time low. The CAG has had its fits and starts and is still grappling with the science and charge before them. Few attend the CAG meetings.
Last month Lone Tree Council began videotaping the CAG meetings and the League of Women Voters of Flint are giving us space on their site to make the meetings available to the public. The first is the December 12th 2001 meeting of the EPA’s Community Advisory Group.
Its been and will remain an exasperating ordeal to garner a good cleanup but to that end, public scrutiny is important.
Tags: accountability, CAG, EPA, Lone Tree, politics
CAG, Eye on the EPA | mhr January 11, 2012 |
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Ringing in the New Year, EPA announced this past week that Dow Chemical is second among toxic chemical emitters.
And then there’s the rhetoric.
Sustainability begins at home, but its destiny is to engage the problems of the world. We will build on our company’s rich legacy of leadership in solving the world’s most pressing problems with a spirit of fearless accountability, not just for our own footprint on the planet, but the collective footprint we make as part of the human family. —Andrew Liveris, CEO Dow Corporation
Tags: accountability, contamination, Dow, EPA, Health, politics, pollution, risk, scandal, toxic
Documents, Eye on the EPA | mhr January 10, 2012 |
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Back in September, Lisa Jackson’s EPA, after missing a previous deadline to release the dioxin reassessment, said the agency would divide its long-awaited final dioxin reassessment into two parts: cancer and non-cancer endpoints with plans to release the non-cancer numbers for dioxin in soil by the end of this month, January 2012.
Applying a tried and true decades old tactic, it should come as no surprise that Dow’s lobbyists at the American Chemistry Council are once again calling on EPA to delay the release of the non cancer numbers past the end of this month, insisting on more information and investigation by EPA in light of a new appropriations bill passed in December.
Administration after administration for decades has promised the release of this much needed guidance. Each and every time they have caved, placing corporate and monied interests above public health.
High hopes for 2012?
You can follow the recent development at this Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ) link.
Tags: accountability, contamination, Delay, Dow, EPA, fraud, Health, politics, pollution, risk, scandal, toxic
Eye on the EPA | mhr January 5, 2012 |
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November 2011
EPA and Dow Chemical Co. signed a legal agreement on November 2, 2011 requiring Dow to clean up sediment in Segment 1, a three-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee River next to Dow’s Midland Plant. There are six Sediment Management Areas or SMAs identified within Segment 1 where chemical pollutants are targeted for cleanup. Most of the pollution in Segment 1 is from chlorobenzenes and other chemicals rather than dioxin. A form of the contamination, dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL), a heavy liquid made up of materials that do not mix with water and sinks to the bottom of the river, is targeted for cleanup in three of the SMAs. EPA selected its plan after carefully considering public comments.
Tags: accountability, cleanup, contamination, Delay, Dow, EPA, Health, politics, pollution, River, toxic
Eye on the EPA | mhr December 11, 2011 |
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For the first time an agency stated in plain language their rationale for declining the use of a study funded by Dow Chemical. Below is MDEQ’s written and succinct comments to the EPA’s Community Advisory Group (CAG) who invited Dr Garabrant to speak to them about the findings in his Dow funded study.