The next quarterly Midland/Saginaw/Bay City (Tri-Cities) Dioxin Community Meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 7, at the Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State Street, Saginaw. The meeting is open to the public and will run from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Staff from the DEQ, Department of Community Health, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Dow, with their consultants, and the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees will be available one-half hour before the meeting and one-half hour after the formal portion of the meeting at open house stations for individual discussion with the public. Maps and other handout materials will be available for viewing and discussion.

Agenda items for the May 7 meeting include a summary of Dow's 2007 sampling data for the middle Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River, and Saginaw Bay; a brief overview of the fish and wild game advisory development process by the DCH; a summary of the U.S. EPA's recent residential assessment sampling activities; a summary of the interim response activities that the DEQ is requiring Dow to conduct during the 2008 field season; and a brief mention of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees' Assessment Plan.

Following the presentations, 45 minutes of the meeting are set aside for questions and discussion. After the formal portion of the meeting ends at about 9:00 p.m., presenters and other agency and company representatives will be available for one-half hour at a number of stations for one on one discussion using an open house format.

The meeting agenda and related documents will be posted to the DEQ Web site prior to the community meeting at http://www.michigan.gov/deqdioxin and may be accessed by clicking on the "DEQ/Dow Community Involvement" and "Dow Off-site Corrective Action" Quick Links in the right navigation column. The next quarterly community meeting is scheduled to be held on August 7, 2008.

Editor's note: DEQ news releases are available on the department's Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

"Protecting Michigan's Environment, Ensuring Michigan's Future"

Revised May 5, 2008 by Pat Watson