Flood Inundates Toxic Dow Chemical Sites
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — It took seven years to settle on a plan for cleaning two rivers and floodplains polluted with dioxins from a Dow Chemical Co. plant in central Michigan. The work itself has lasted nearly twice as long, with plenty still to do.
Now scientists and activists fear some of the progress may have washed away with floodwaters that overwhelmed two dams this week, chasing 11,000 people from homes in and near Midland, the company’s headquarters city.
The Tittabawassee River flows past the Dow plant and eventually meets the Saginaw River, which continues into Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay. That 50-mile stretch is tainted with dioxins — highly toxic compounds that researchers say can damage reproductive and immune systems and cause cancer. The area is on the federal Superfund list of hazardous sites.
https://www.courthousenews.com/flood-inundates-toxic-dow-chemical-sites/
