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Tuesday, January 11, 2007

JUSTIN ENGELTHE SAGINAW NEWS

MIDLAND -- Dow Chemical Co. and the state Department of Environmental Quality are forming a plan to tackle the highest levels of soil contamination found in a region surrounding a chemical plant that the DEQ has ever recorded.

Dow Chemical Co.-hired Ann Arbor Technical Services workers were finishing a study of a six-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee River between the Tridge and the Smith's Crossing bridge in Midland when three samples showed heavy concentrations of dioxins and furans.

John C. Musser, Dow spokesman, said the depths where the samples were found indicate contamination that may have occurred nearly a century ago.

The contractor measured the toxins at 87,000 parts per trillion, 84,000 parts per trillion and 69,000 parts per trillion, all on Dow property. Nearby samples measured between 100 and 1,000 parts per trillion.

By contrast, Michigan's residential contact limit for dioxin in soil is 90 parts per trillion. The state average is 7 parts per trillion.

The previous most-contaminated sample taken near a chemical plant was 2,000 parts per trillion in the Upper Peninsula, said DEQ spokesman Robert McCann. That contamination also contained dioxins and furans.

"We were expecting we might find some high numbers," McCann said. "I wouldn't say we are shocked, but we are concerned."

McCann hopes to begin cleanup by the end of the month. The job might last until the summer depending on weather, the walleye spawning season and other factors, McCann said.

The sampling -- which began in August -- involved extracting soil with small cylindrical tubes at various depths. Now crews will use the same tools to take samples within feet of the original sites to determine the size of the contaminated regions.

"We want to find out if it's the size of a bread basket or a bus," Musser said. "Then we want to take action as quickly as possible and as safely as possible."

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