To the Editor of the Saginaw News

11/8/03

Dow's spin machine was running at full throttle yesterday when it attempted to portray the lawsuit plaintiff's as a "small group of people" trying to "shut down dialogue".

The public, including many plaintiff's of the lawsuit, have been participating on all fronts with the State regulatory agencies in resolving this issue for almost 2 years and will continue to do so. Public comment is good and the citizens of Saginaw have provided lots of it (see our website, www.trwnews.net for a list of hundreds submitted). . The State of Michigan is now listening to us, Dow never has, hence the lawsuit

Private sessions hosted by the polluter intended for those without legal council are suspect. Efforts by plaintiff's attorneys and statements made by myself were done in an attempt to warn non-plaintiff residents of possible violations of their legal rights and reduce the risk of future legal issues. Plaintiff's with signed agreements are protected by our attorneys. Dow cannot speak to plaintiff's unless our attorneys are present.

Those without plaintiff agreements are on their own as the court issued an order to allowed Dow to proceed with it's interrogation of non-plaintiff's. Residents need to exercise caution if they met with Dow next week, limit you comments to ways Dow can clean this mess up NOW!

We feel confident our case will be certified as a class action regardless of what non-plaintiff's may say in Dow's private "sessions". And if by chance the case is not certified as a class, our lawyers are prepared to sue Dow on an individual basis for all 300+ residents with signed agreements.

In my opinion, every property owner in the flood plain needs some sort of legal representation if they deal with Dow. The "small" group of 300 signed plaintiff's represent a wide cross-section of our society and are spread across the entire flood plain. What do we have in common? Everyone of us is now an official owner of a State designated Hazardous Waste Facility created by the Dow Chemical Company.

Keep informed, visit our website at www.trwnews.net

Gary Henry, TRW member and plaintiff.

For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawasse River Watch web site www.trwnews.net for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga. . The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The source organization's web site link is listed to the right of the article, visit often for other news in our area. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.