Timely story for those of us in Washtenaw County/Ann Arbor MI. We are sitting on a toxic plume of 1,4 dioxane that was discharged over 30 years ago and our local government has done little (in the scheme of things) to help. It is the largest such spill in the nation. For much more information check the links below. Some surrounding townships applied for Superfund status, the city council did not join the application for a few reasons, one of which was “Superfund status might have a negative effect on property values”
The point being, at last night’s CARD (Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane) meeting we discussed Dourson’s appointment, Pruitt and the possible outcomes for communities that are in or in the process of determining Superfund status. Dourson has made some pretty junk science statements on the toxicity and exposure levels of 1,4 dioxane so we are concerned. However comments from Federal representatives were generally positive, apparently Pruitt has a lot of Superfund sites in his home state and so that part of the EPA’s regulatory action is safe, for selfish reasons. Also, the fund itself cannot be “un-funded”.
Ann Arbor finds out in November if we meet the scoring criteria to move to the next level of site investigation. We ran our own scorecard and we do think we will qualify. Also, note that active cleanups under Superfund status actually stabilize or increase property values in the mid to long term, because who wants to have poisoned water, poisoned wells? A Superfund cleanup will bring immediate relief to those households on wells in the affected area by making municiple water connections. Again, the City of Ann Arbor is the logjam, they do not want to foot the bill for this.
Now for those of you that are into charts and graphs and data, peruse the site put together by a man who is a hero to many, Roger Rayle, who has been tracking this since it’s discovery in the 80’s.
https://sites.google.com/site/srsworg/
#GelmanPlume #OnePercentForWater #WaterPlanet
