Clean Production and Toxics

Great Lakes EPA head fired over cleanup

In May, the head of the Great Lakes region for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency learned an important lesson. Trying to clean up toxic pollution can be hazardous to your job.

Mary Gade, Region 5 EPA administrator since fall of 2006, was fired because she was pushing for a quicker cleanup of the dioxin-ravaged water systems flowing into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. This area, which is often compared with Love Canal, New York, and Times Beach, Missouri as one of the worst dioxin-contaminated sites ever found in the U.S., was designated by the U.S. and Canadian governments as an Area of Concern under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Midland, Michigan is world headquarters for Dow Chemical, which for decades released a chemical soup, including dioxins, into the local waterways. This has resulted in dioxin-saturated sediments that stretch 50 miles beyond its Midland plant through the Tittabawassee River system and down the Saginaw River into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron.

For decades Dow Chemical has fought to limit its clean-up responsibilities. It has claimed that dioxins don’t have negative health effects beyond a skin disease called chloracne, and that the sources of dioxins are forest fires and wood-burning fireplaces, not its chemical plant.

Last summer Mary Gade ordered Dow Chemical to remove three hotspots of dioxins in Midland. In November, she demanded more dredging when they found that sediments along a park had dioxin levels of 1.6 million parts per trillion. This, the highest level of dioxins ever found in the U.S., exceeded clean-up standards by millions of times. The U.S. clean-up standard is 5,900 parts per trillion; Michigan State’s level is 90 parts per trillion. Dow Chemical tried to cut a deal on the cleanup that she was requiring.

When Mary Gade persisted in her call for the immediate removal of the sediments, Dow Chemical appealed to officials in Washington, D.C. to intervene on their behalf. This resulted in two aides to the EPA head telling her to quit or be fired by June 1. She immediately resigned.

Environmental groups in Michigan, including Environmental Health Watch in Midland, Michigan Citizens Against Toxic Chemicals, Lone Tree Council, and Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, have fought for decades for the cleanup. They have long expressed frustration and anger with Dow’s on-going intimidation and political string-pulling, which have stalled the cleanup. In the meantime, people and wildlife are exposed to dioxins, and contaminated sediments flow down the river system out to Lake Huron.

© 2008 Great Lakes News.