EPA, Michigan sign order on dioxin cleanup plan

(AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Michigan have signed an administrative order on a road map for the planned cleanup of dioxin contamination near the Dow Chemical Co. plant in Midland.

The signing was announced Friday. The agreement with Dow Chemical Co. outlines the next steps in a Superfund evaluation of contamination in the Tittabawassee River, the Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay and their flood plains.

The agreement also requires Midland-based Dow to identify cleanup options and design the cleanup.

The order is unchanged from a draft released last fall. Dow earlier signed the deal. Public comment on the proposed agreement ended in December.

For much of the 20th century the area was polluted by dioxin emissions from the plant.

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On the Net:

http://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/dowchemical