January 31, 2008

The Department of Environmental Quality will be holding the next quarterly Midland/Saginaw/Bay City (Tri-Cities) Dioxin Community Meeting on Thursday, February 7, 2008 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, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency will participate and be available one-half hour before and one-half hour after the meeting for individual discussion with the public. Maps and other handout materials will be available for viewing and discussion.

The Dow Chemical Company has elected not to participate in this community meeting.

The agenda for about the first hour of the February 7 meeting includes a summary of 2007 Tittabawassee River activities and findings and potential 2008 activities; an overview of EPA/DEQ coordination, including a summary of 2007 Tittabawassee River Reach D and Saginaw River Wickes Park area activities; an evaluation of Saginaw River Dioxin Exposures and Health Risks; and a brief update on the ongoing Tittabawassee/Saginaw River treatment technology studies. Following these presentations, 50 minutes are set aside for questions and discussion on these and other topics. During the final 45 minutes of the meeting, agency staff will be available at several stations for one-on-one discussion and attendees will be able to view Tittabawassee River sampling results on maps and discuss health/exposure concerns and other matters directly with agency technical staff and management.

The DEQ is unable to have this meeting recorded or transcribed.

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 May 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 January 31, 2008 by Pat Watson