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-----Original Message-----
For Immediate Release
December 27, 2004
Contacts: James Clift (517) 256-0553 Terry Miller (989) 686-6386
Groups Challenge Granholm On Dioxin Cleanup Goals /Urge ‘Secret’ Dow Talks Toward Successful Finish/
Community residents and state and local environmentalists today released a seven-point set of dioxin cleanup guidelines for the Midland-Saginaw Bay area, urging the Granholm administration to successfully conclude still-secret talks with Dow Chemical Company over the fate of the Tittabawassee and Saginaw River watersheds.
"This situation has gone on long enough," said Michelle Hurd Riddick, a Midland area resident and Lone Tree Council member. "The recent disclosure confirming highly elevated levels of dioxin contamination along the Saginaw River must be taken by the Granholm administration and public health officials as clear indication of the need to require Dow to move swiftly to remove dioxin contaminated soils and sediments from our communities. The guidelines we are releasing today outline what community residents believe an acceptable cleanup plan should address."
Although the cleanup guidelines are targeted at the Saginaw Bay watershed, the same questions need to asked about rivers throughout the state, said James Clift, Policy Director of the Michigan Environmental Council.
“We want to know when Michigan’s citizens are going to get to swim and fish safely again in the Kalamazoo, Rouge or Grand rivers. We refuse to accept that the state is turning its back, that the day we can safely use Michigan’s rivers is gone forever,” said Clift.
Closed negotiations between Michigan and Dow Chemical Company regarding the cleanup of the deadly poison dioxin were slated to conclude October 31st,but have dragged on an additional two months. The Michigan Environmental Council, the Lone Tree Council, Sierra Club, Ecology Center, Clean Water Action, Tittabawassee River Watch, Citizens Against Toxic Chemicals, and Environmental Health Watch released today’s dioxin cleanup guidelines in anticipation that the results of the negotiations will be announced soon.
“Residents of my community just want to know that the contaminated soils and sediments are going to be removed from the rivers, the riverbanks and their yards, and put somewhere we know they are going to be safe and not re-released into our community,” said Terry Miller, a resident of Bay City, also from the Lone Tree Council.
Michigan law contains a dioxin standard of 90 parts per trillion as the benchmark for protecting families’ health in a residential setting. Environmentalists and local residents are concerned about Dow’s attempts to avoid cleaning up dioxin to that standard and the subsequent impact on public health.
The eight groups released the following guidelines that will be used to evaluate any proposed cleanup plan coming out of the Granholm-Dow negotiations:
1) Will the final goal of any cleanup result in rivers that we can swim and fish in, that we know are safe as drinking water sources?
2) Will the public have a strong, direct role in ensuring that 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?
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David Holtz Michigan Director Clean Water Action Clean Water Fund 517-203-0754 East Lansing 313-300-4454 cell http://www.cleanwateraction.org/mi/index.htm
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