The Cost of Doing Business?
The Dow Chemical Company, which has been dumping toxics into the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers since 1897, is being asked to pay for the mess that it’s made. On December 15, 2008, Dow received a bill for $1.8 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to pay for EPA staff time spent on the dioxin cleanup process. The bill is for costs accrued through October 31, 2008, and includes “expenditures for investigating, planning, response, oversight, and enforcement activities”. In addition to payroll costs, the bill includes travel costs, contracted work expenses, and “indirect costs”.
EPA spokesperson Mick Hans said Dow agreed to be billed as part of the Superfund process. Dow spokesperson Mary Draves said she’s not aware of any such agreement. Her memory regarding this discussion may be hazy, but the law is not.
The Superfund program was established as part of the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). The Superfund process involves the assessment of toxic waste sites, and the establishment of appropriate clean-up plans. Under CERCLA, the EPA has the authority to implement the Superfund process, and force responsible parties to either take care of the clean-up themselves, or reimburse the government for an EPA led clean-up.
Incineration, past waste disposal practices, and fugitive emissions from Dow’s Midland, Michigan facility have resulted in contamination that spreads as far as fifty miles downstream through the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers and into the Saginaw Bay. As a result of the chlorine-based manufacturing Dow has been doing since the 1930’s, and liquid wastes being dumped directly from their facilities into the Tittabawassee River, dioxins have contaminated the two rivers and their floodplains. Dioxins are pollutants that build up in the environment, and have been linked to developmental disorders and cancer in humans. The Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry have established an action level for dioxin of 1,000 parts per trillion (ppt). Dioxin concentrations of 110,000 ppt have been detected in the Tittabawassee river, and concentrations of 1,600,000 ppt have been found in the Saginaw river.
Dow’s facilities have been in operation since 1897, and there is no doubt that they are the responsible party in the case of the dioxin contamination. In 2007 the EPA oversaw the cleanup of four dioxin “hot spot” sites. The EPA, Michigan DEQ and Dow Chemical Company are currently in discussion regarding the assessment and cleanup of other dioxin contaminated sites. So, Dow is responsible for the dioxin contamination, and the EPA has been involved in the clean-up process. Hence, the bill for $1.8 million. In the broad scheme of things, it seems like a small price to pay for decades of dumping highly toxic chemical compounds into the environment.
On January 15, 2009, a meeting was held at Saginaw Valley State University to discuss plans for further cleanup of the Tittabawasee and Sagianw rivers. The U.S. EPA is negotiating with Dow and MDEQ regarding a new comprehensive cleanup plan that would use the Superfund Alternative Approach, which is more guidance-based than regulatory and encourages public involvement. Mary Gade, a former U.S. EPA chief for Region 5 in Chicago, who was fired in 2007 for allegedly taking too-tough of a stance on the issue of the Dow dioxin clean-up, was present at the meeting. She argued that a clean-up plan had already been underway in 2007 when she was fired, and the proposed Superfund process will only delay a real comprehensive clean-up. She also argued that the Superfund Alternative Approach isn’t tough enough, with its focus on guidance instead of regulation. So the discussion wears on, and the area remains contaminated. Dow Chemical may have been dealt a symbolic slap on the wrist, but so far they seem to have emerged from the wreckage of this environmental catastrophe relatively unharmed. Unlike the Saginaw river.
