Dow, EPA talks break down over river cleanup

04 January 2008 19:57  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke off talks with Dow Chemical on Friday over cleanup of dioxin contamination of a river along Dow’s Midland, Michigan plant site, with the agency saying it will pursue other options.

 

Since the middle of last year, the agency and Dow have been in discussions on what Dow must do to clean up the Tittabawassee River that runs alongside the chemical company’s 1,900-acre headquarters site at Midland in east-central Michigan.

 

Dow’s Midland facilities began operations in 1897, and EPA says that years of waste disposal practices, emissions and incineration at the site have caused on-site and off-site contamination, including a 50-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee River.

 

EPA contends that contamination from the Dow Midland plant complex extends downstream in the Tittabawassee where it joins the Saginaw River before flowing into Saginaw Bay, part of Lake Huron.

 

“I am extremely disappointed with this outcome,” said Mary Gade, administrator of EPA’s regional office in Chicago, Illinois.

 

“EPA is now reviewing its options for ensuring that dioxin contamination in the river system and the Midland area can be fully addressed,” Gade said.

 

EPA spokeswoman Anne Rowan said the agency “has a wide range of options open to it under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Superfund law”.

 

Mick Hans, another EPA spokesperson, said that “litigation is not always the most efficient approach, but we wouldn’t rule it out”.

 

Rowan said the agency also has administrative order authority and “wide latitude under the law to ensure that these cleanups are done”.  She said both statutes give the agency corrective action authority and that the State of Michigan also can exert pressure on Dow through the state’s business licensing process.

 

Rowan said that because the negotiations with Dow were under a confidentiality agreement, she could not specify what elements of the talks caused the breakdown.

 

A spokesman for Dow was not immediately available to comment.

By: Joe Kamalick
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