EPA takes charge of Dow Chemical's river cleanup project
 Wednesday, October 24, 2007
 By Jeff Kart jkart@bc-times.com | 894-9639

Dow Chemical Co. still has plenty of pollution to address in and along local rivers - from dioxins and furans that were byproducts of the manufacture of chlorine-based products decades ago.

The toxics have settled along and in the Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay, threatening human and ecological health from long-term exposure, state regulators say.

But how quickly a cleanup will proceed has become less clear now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has stepped in as the lead agency on the project.

Dow, based in Midland, has been working since 2001 with the state Department of Environmental Quality to address historic dioxin contamination in the waterways, primarily emitted from the 1930s through the 1970s.

In recent months, the EPA office in Chicago has involved itself in the matter, and now is acting as the lead agency.

In June, the EPA ordered Dow to begin cleaning up three dioxin hot spots on the Tittabawassee River. Earlier this month, EPA officials gave Dow 60 days to negotiate a cleanup settlement for the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and Saginaw Bay.

That involves evaluating the nature and extent of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants, assessing the risk they present to human health and the environment and developing cleanup options.

Dow already has agreed to negotiate, and has until Dec. 10 to submit a ''good faith offer'' on how it will proceed.

Dow spokesman John Musser said the EPA's involvement could be positive. The 60-day deadline is a faster timeframe than Dow and the DEQ were operating under.

Dow still is hoping to have the rivers and bay addressed with a cleanup by 2010 that would include money to pay for natural resource improvements, Musser said.

On the other hand, the EPA is invoking the Superfund law in calling for negotiations, which introduces a whole new set of regulations for the project.

''There's questions here about who we report to,'' Musser said. ''We've got two people driving the bus.''

EPA officials in Chicago say they weren't satisfied with the pace at which Dow was moving forward with a cleanup. They declined to give specifics, but said they believe invoking Superfund will move the process along more quickly, even though it means transferring authority from the state to the federal government.

The DEQ and EPA still are trying to work out how state and federal cleanup laws will apply under the EPA's authority.

''We think that we can get it done more effectively and in a more timely way,'' said Ralph Dollhopf, associate director of the EPA Superfund Division in Chicago.

However, he acknowledged that a timeline for completion hasn't been set.

''That has to be considered during the negotiation process and during the development of work plans,'' Dollhopf said.

Wendy Carney, remedial branch chief for the EPA in Chicago, said the Superfund process has been used extensively around the U.S. for cleaning up other large river systems degraded by historical industrial activities, including the Fox River in Wisconsin and the Kalamazoo River in Western Michigan.

Robert McCann, a DEQ spokesman in Lansing, said the EPA has been involved with the Dow cleanup process in recent years, but is now ''taking much more of a lead role.''

''We're OK with that,'' McCann said.

''We're going to remain a partner in this and ensure that whatever plans or steps forward are taken that we're comfortable with them from the state level and that they comply with state law.''

The state is operating under a residential cleanup level of 90 parts per trillion, and that number won't change with the EPA's involvement, McCann said.

Still, final cleanup levels are subject to negotiation, and based on different exposure pathways, McCann and EPA officials said. Previous government testing has found dioxins levels above 90 ppt in river sediments in the Bay City area and concentrations above 1,000 ppt at the river mouth and in the bay.

McCann said six years of effort by the DEQ have moved the cleanup process forward. Dow and the DEQ have had their disagreements, but have been able to set aside certain issues while pushing ahead on others, he said.

''A lot of the work that has been done over the last couple of years has gotten us to this point,'' McCann said.

''Without the extensive sampling we've done, you wouldn't know what we're dealing with.''

The plan being developed for the Dec. 10 deadline could involve everything from removal of river sediment or river bank material to capping areas with clean fill or clay and armoring river banks, Musser said.

©2007 Bay City Times
 

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