EM:/ Dow, EPA and dioxin

Hi Kathy--

Sediment in the river would probably still have to be dredged, then treated in a sludge impoundment or landfill.  My position is, Dow created the problem, make Dow solve it.  They have (or could get) the people and the facilities to do it.  

At present, contaminated soil from the park is being dumped in a landfill.  In other words, the poison has simply been moved from one place to another.  That's not good enough.  If the toxic character of dioxin can be neutralized through bioremediation or any other method, it should be.  Let Dow figure it out -- and pay for it.

Anticipating some other objections, I would have the same authority that orders Dow to detoxify the dioxin determine, say annually, whether significant progress is being made.  If sufficient progress isn't being made, the authority (EPA, federal court, Justice Department, whatever) would order Dow to increase funding for the effort by 50 percent; same every year, if necessary, until the job's done.

Furthermore, I would require that Dow's efforts in this respect be open source; that is to say, no trade secrets, patents or the like.  Dow would be compelled to publish its findings and progress at least every month so that other organizations, public or private, could jump in with their own project in a race to the finish line.

Last but not least, a caveat:  A "no-can-do" attitude seems to pervade some discussions concerning environmental rehabilitation in Michigan.  I hope it's not contagious.

--  Jim






From: gehenry at chartermi.net
To: lang.sc.oak at hotmail.com; enviro-mich at mailman.great-lakes.net
Subject: Re: EM:/ Dow, EPA and dioxin
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:45:14 -0400










Jim,
How would you suggest they bio-remediate it when the 
dioxin contamination is over 4 feet deep in the floodplain soil alone, 
God only knows about the river it's self.  Several years ago, DEQ's Andy 
Hogarth commented something like- 'we kept going deeper and deeper and 
we didn't stop finding it'....
 
Kathy Henry
www.trwnews.net 


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: 
  James 
  Lang 
  To: enviro-mich 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 10:49 
  AM
  Subject: EM:/ Dow, EPA and dioxin
  
Enviro-Michers:
 
Does Dow Chemical have 
  laboratories?  (Does a leopard have spots?)  
 
Dow 
  should be developing processes such as bioremediation to neutralize dioxin the 
  company has dumped in the Saginaw basin over many years.
 
If Dow 
  isn't developing that technology, why doesn't EPA order the company 
  to find an antidote to the poison it has wreaked on the Saginaw 
  Valley?  I'll bet a federal district judge would.
 
Before 
  long, careers that began when the extent of the dioxin threat was first 
  understood will have ended, all while EPA and the Michigan bureaucracies 
  dithered.
 
What we mustn't forget is that the delay in coming to 
  grips with the contamination in the Saginaw Valley is an abomination.  
  And without a radically different approach, it will 
  continue.
 
It's often said that we live under the rule of law, not 
  men, but that doesn't take into consideration the influence of giant 
  corporations like Dow.  Under the deft manipulation of lobbyists and 
  corporate law departments, law is becoming the enemy of 
  justice.
 
If you have any doubt about that, you need only to look 
  at the example of Exxon Valdez.
 
 --  Jim 
  Lang








  
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