Dredging plans can't run aground
Friday, December 17, 2004
The
clock keeps ticking -- and silt keeps accumulating -- as plans to dredge the
Saginaw River between Bay City and Zilwaukee proceed at a glacial pace.
Everyone
agrees the dredging project is urgently needed. Planning has plodded along
for the better part of two decades. Larger ships avoid or can't make trips
upriver now. The Saginaw receiving port, the state's second busiest after
Detroit, could shut down to most ships within the next year if the river
isn't dredged.
What's
mucking up the process? Residents who live near the site where the U.S. Corps
of Engineers plan to dump the dredged silt have a fevered case of "Not
In My Back Yard," or NIMBY.
Citizens
Against Toxic Substances is demanding the government first conduct an
environmental impact study on the 280-acre site. At a hearing last week, the
latest objections focused on dioxins and soil samples showing high
concentrations in the river bed. Dioxin is a concern downriver from the
Tittabawassee, which flows into the Saginaw. Environmental groups are engaged
with the state, and putting pressure on Dow Chemical Co., to get the
Tittabawassee contamination cleaned up.
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© 2004
Saginaw News. Used with permission