Because dioxins take many years before a gradual onset of diverse
effects, it is difficult to realize it's powerful effects.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-epa-official-resigns_webmay02,=
0,601716.storyhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-epa-official-res=
igns_webmay02,0,601716.story
EPA official ousted while fighting Dow
By Michael Hawthorne | Tribune re****ter
May 2, 2008
SAGINAW, Mich. - The battle over dioxin contamination in this
economically stressed region had been raging for years when a top Bush
administration official turned up the pressure on Dow Chemical to
clean it up.
On Thursday, following months of internal bickering over Mary Gade's
interactions with Dow, the administration forced her to quit as head
of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Midwest office, based in
Chicago.
Gade told the Tribune she resigned after two aides to national EPA
administrator Stephen Johnson took away her powers as regional
administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.
The call came as the Tribune was preparing to publish a story about
the dioxin issue and Gade's crusade.
Jonathan Shradar, an EPA spokesman in Wa****ngton, said Gade has been
placed on administrative leave until June 1. He declined further
comment, saying the agency does not publicly discuss personnel
matters.
Gade has been locked in a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed
plans to clean up dioxin-saturated soil and sediment that extends 50
miles beyond its Midland, Mich., plant into Saginaw Bay and Lake
Huron. The company dumped the highly toxic and persistent chemical
into local rivers for most of the last century.
Many local residents see Dow as a lifeline in region plagued by plant
closings and layoffs. But all along the two wide streams that cut
through this old industrial town, signs warn people to keep off dioxin-
contaminated riverbanks and to avoid eating fish pulled from the fast-
moving waters. Officials have taken the swings down in one riverside
park to discourage kids from playing there. Men in rubber boots and
thick gloves occasionally knock on doors, asking residents whether
they can dig up a little soil in the yard.
Gade, appointed by President Bush as regional EPA administrator in
September 2006, invoked emergency powers last summer to order the
company to remove three hotspots of dioxin near its Midland
headquarters.
She demanded more dredging in November, when it was revealed that
dioxin levels along a park in Saginaw were 1.6 million parts per
trillion, the highest amount ever found in the U.S.
Dow then sought to cut a deal on a more comprehensive cleanup. But
Gade ended the negotiations in January, saying Dow was refusing to
take action necessary to protect public health and wildlife. Dow
responded by appealing to officials in Wa****ngton, according to
heavily redacted letters the Tribune obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act.
Regional EPA administrators typically have wide latitude to enforce
environmental laws, but in April Gade drew fire from officials in
Wa****ngton after she sent contractors to test soil in a Saginaw
neighborhood where Dow had found high dioxin levels. The levels in one
Saginaw yard were nearly six times higher than the federal cleanup
standard, and 65 times higher than what Michigan considers acceptable.
On Thursday, Gade said of her resignation: "There's no question this
is about Dow. I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I'm
proud of what we did."
Dioxin, measured in trillionths of a gram because it is so toxic, was
a manufacturing byproduct of the herbicide Agent Orange and other
chlorinated chemicals. Company do***ents show Dow knew by the
mid-1960s that it could make people sick or even kill them. Citing
years of independent studies, the EPA says dioxin causes cancer and
disrupts the immune and reproductive systems, even at very low levels.
Concerns about dioxin contamination were behind two of the most
infamous environmental disasters in U.S. history: the evacuations of
the Love Canal neighborhood in upstate New York and the entire town of
Times Beach, Mo.
But in the Saginaw area, cleanup remains stalled, mainly because Dow
asserts the contamination does not threaten people or wildlife.
"There is all of this mystique about dioxin," said John Musser, a Dow
spokesman. "Just because it's there doesn't mean there is an imminent
health threat."
Dow says it has agreed in principle to restore polluted areas but is
contesting how it should be done=97which critics view as more stalling.
"Denial and delay has been part of Dow's game plan for years," said
Michelle Hurd Riddick, a Saginaw nurse and member of the Lone Tree
Council, a local environmental group. "They still haven't delivered."
Dow was forced to stop releasing dioxin into waterways in the
mid-1980s. But when high levels of dioxin were found in fish from
Saginaw Bay around the same time, Dow repeatedly claimed it wasn't
responsible, saying the chemical had settled into the water from air
pollution caused by forest fires and wood-burning fireplaces.
The company and environmental regulators spent the rest of the decade
arguing about dioxin's health effects. Dow insisted the chemical
caused only a severe skin rash known as chloracne, even as a growing
number of studies found it could cause cancer and other diseases.
The steps Gade took were influenced in part by her experience as an
EPA staffer during the early 1980s, when the agency's top official in
Wa****ngton was forced to resign after he allowed Dow to censor an EPA
study do***enting dioxin's dangers.
"We have a responsibility to make sure people are living in a healthy
and safe environment," Gade said. "This problem has been out there for
more than 30 years, and it's unconscionable that action hasn't been
taken."
"We know Dow is responsible," said Ralph Dollhopf, associate director
of the EPA's regional Superfund office. "The question now is when
something will finally be done about it."
In Saginaw, some are reluctant to question one of the area's biggest
employers and benefactors. They tout Dow's 3,100 manufacturing jobs
and its donations to community and arts groups, including its
sponsor****p of a struggling civic arena, now known as the Dow Event
Center.
Bob VanDeventer, president of the Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce,
said local leaders are trying to fight the perception that dioxin
makes the area unsafe. He argued "not one illness" can be attributed
to dioxin and insisted the only way someone could be exposed to dioxin
is if they "eat the dirt."
"Michigan is in the tank economically already," VanDeventer said. "For
us, this situation certainly creates more uncertainty as long as it
remains unresolved."
Others who were drawn to living along the picturesque Tittabawassee
and Saginaw Rivers fear the contamination will make it impossible to
sell their homes or will get them sick.
For more than 40 years, Lloyd and Joy Cooper have lived in a cottage
near where the tree-lined rivers meet. Contractors for the EPA and Dow
have tested their yard at least four times in two years.
In February Dow told federal regulators they had found dioxin levels
of 5,900 parts per trillion in the Collins' neighborhood, above the
federal cleanup standard of 1,000 parts per trillion. Michigan's far
more stringent limit is 90 parts per trillion.
"It gets pretty frustrating," said Lloyd Cooper, a retired contractor.
"It seems like they're dragging this out as long as they can. If
they're going to do something, do it and get it over with for good."
mhawthorne@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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