#3: Thanking the Community for its Support
Open Letter to the Community from Susan Carrington
An open letter to the community was printed in recent editions of the Midland Daily News. The letter from Susan Carrington, Dow vice president and director of the Michigan Dioxin Initiative, thanks Midland residents for their attendance and input at the community meeting this past Wednesday. Employee support and attendance at the meeting brought the turnout at the Midland Center for the Arts to approximately 1700 people. Community participation is vitally important as Dow moves toward a resolution of the dioxin situation.
Thank you.
This past week brought focus to the local dioxin situation, and we are encouraged by the strong community interest in understanding the options for addressing local concerns.
Dow is committed to working with everyone - state regulators, local elected officials and community residents - to find workable, common-sense solutions to those concerns.
First, we want to thank the City of Midland and local elected officials for hosting the meeting last Wednesday evening. Residents asked a variety of thoughtful questions about dioxin, the State regulatory process, and the public health basis for actions proposed by the State.
We also want to thank residents who attended the meeting for their genuine interest and response. As a company that has made Midland its home for more than 100 years, we are committed to working with you and ensuring your involvement in the process that is underway. We understand your concerns that decisions about dioxin could affect your property, your community and your families, and we encourage your continued input.
During the meeting last Wednesday, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) offered for consideration three options for addressing the dioxin situation. These included obtaining local bioavailability data to adapt generic dioxin exposure criteria to actual local conditions, establishing site-specific criteria, and/or implementing "presumptive remedies."
Bioavailability data would consider how much of the dioxin in the soil could possibly be absorbed into the body if the soil is ingested. This is very important because the simple presence of a substance in our environment does not equal exposure to that substance. Because this is a question, we are funding a regional comparison study that is being conducted by the University of Michigan to determine the typical blood level of dioxin for people in Saginaw and Midland.
Based on the meeting, we are encouraged by MDEQ's commitment to work with the community and Dow. We hope that bioavailability data can be developed quickly, and that site-specific criteria are seriously considered in making decisions, including the decision about when and how presumptive remedies may be appropriate. Presumptive remedies, as we understand them, allow a more rapid response by making some general, but well-founded, assumptions about the situation, and then applying a final remedy based on those assumptions.
In the end, we believe that any decisions about dioxin should be community-based and take into account the wishes of local property owners.
We are committed to continuing to work with the community and the State to gather information and provide answers and solutions. Throughout this process, we will provide you, the community, with information and updates.
Again, we thank the City of Midland, local elected officials and Midland residents for an informative meeting last Wednesday evening.
Sincerely,
Susan Carrington
Vice President and Director
Michigan Dioxin Initiative
