Issue: U.S.

EPA Orders Dow to Remove Dioxin Hot Spots Along Tittabawassee River -
Midland

Background/Status:

The Dow Midland facility is a 1,900-acre chemical plant located in Midland, Michigan. Past
operations at the plant have resulted in dioxin and furan (dioxin) contamination extending more
than 50 miles from Midland into the Tittabawassee-Saginaw River Watershed including Saginaw
Bay on Lake Huron. Corrective action is taking place under a State Operating License issued in
2003. However, progress concerning off-site corrective action has experienced many delays, and
has been unacceptably slow from EPA’s perspective. In November, 2006, Dow Chemical
identified three dioxin hot spots in flood plain soils and sediments along the Tittabawassee River
downstream of the company’s Midland, MI plant. Concentrations ranged up to 87,000 parts per
trillion compared with the state cleanup standard of 90 ppt. MDEQ had requested Dow to
perform interim response actions for these hot spots as soon as possible under the corrective
action requirements of Dow’s RCRA permit. On June 7, 2007, Dow informed MDEQ of
significant revisions to their proposed schedule for addressing the hot spots which would result
in delaying potions of the cleanup until 2008. On June 27, 2007, U.S. EPA ordered Dow to
negotiate the final terms of three administrative consent orders, each addressing the removal of
contaminated soil and sediment at one of the hot spots, within 15 days, and to submit a
remediation plan by July 19 and start field work by August 15. The decision to order Dow to
negotiate the order and proceed with the cleanups was prompted by Dow's corrective action work
under the State license taking too long to be protective of human health and the environment.
Dow and U.S. EPA have been negotiating the terms of the orders since July 2, and Dow began
work on one of the hot spots on July 9. As of July 11, agreement was reached on the following:

In related Dow news, on June 7, 2006, Region 5 submitted comments to MDEQ on Dow's
revised Remedial Investigation Work Plans for the Tittabawassee River and the City of Midland.
Major deficiencies include: lack of implementation schedules, human health and ecological risk
assessments that are inconsistent with U.S. EPA guidance, lack of progress in addressing dioxin
hot spots, and an inadequate description of Dow's historic plant operations for use in developing
a target analyte list. MDEQ has stated that they will work with Dow to address U.S. EPA’s
comments after MDEQ approval of Dow’s proposed work plans for continued characterization
of the middle Tittabawassee River scheduled to be completed in 2007.

Message:
• U.S. EPA will ensure that Dow removes the three dioxin hot spots along the
Tittabawassee River to protect human health and the environment in the Saginaw Bay
watershed.

Contacts: Jim Augustyn, Superfund, (440) 250-1742; Jeff Cahn, ORC, (312) 886-0813; Greg
Rudloff, RCRA, (312) 886-0455.