A potential new path to dioxin and furan contamination cleanup in the Saginaw Valley is under discussion.
The Dow Chemical Co. expects to receive a letter today from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 office and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality that would describe the potential end points of negotiations to create an Superfund Alternative Site.
The company and the agencies hope to come to an agreement on issues such as how much more data to collect and what remedies to use for contaminated riverbanks and other sites in the Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay.
"This is not a negotiation to establish a final remedy," said Dow spokesman John Musser. "It's an important step, but it's not the last step."
Negotiations are expected to get in-depth next month, with Dow needing to make a good faith effort by Feb. 15. After that, a 30-day extension could be granted. If terms are reached, implementation could take from one to several years, depending on what work is agreed upon.
"We'll likely see more removal actions," Musser said. "But, Dow would be hard pressed to see mass removal as a viable strategy."
Instead, options could include targeting areas for removal and focusing on stabilizing eroding riverbanks that could recontaminate the waterway, Musser said.
Some sites already have received bank stabilization techniques to test how effective they are at preventing erosion during the Tittabawassee River's winter and spring phases.
Another key point of the negotiation is expected to be how much information still needs to be collected.
Dow has tested for a list of compounds in the Tittabawassee River, with extensive data from thousands of samples. Musser said the company does not want to test for compounds in the Saginaw River that were not found in the Tittabawassee, because Dow should not be responsible for them.
"We're not going there," he said. "We just can't. We're not going to take on responsibility for the Saginaw River exclusively."
The company has agreed to look at the first six miles.
"We're not going to own the rest of the river, and we're not going to own the bay," Musser said.
Dow has proposed a natural resource damage claims trust be used to distribute money based on assessed damages on the Saginaw River and Bay.
The MDEQ and EPA have signaled the desire for more testing on the Saginaw River and Bay.
Musser said previous dealings with the MDEQ left Dow feeling it wasn't headed toward an end point.
"The negotiation that's coming up offers us some hope," he said.
The talks also will be different than previous discussions with the EPA under Region 5 Administrator Mary Gade, who left her job in the spring stating she had been stripped of her powers by EPA headquarters because of her work with the Dow contamination issue.
At the time, Musser said Dow had appealed to EPA headquarters to seek equal treatment, which it hadn't received from Region 5 when it tried to come to an agreement on cleanup efforts.