Friday, June 24, 2005

Here's a Big ol' Update on the Tittabawassee River Floodplain!

Forgive me... or don't. I've been busy buying and planting perennial flowers in all that beautifully landscaped flower bed area in my yard. We bought all of our flowers at Leaman's Green Applebarn, a locally owned Centennial Farm. Need flowers? Stop in at Leamans. Jaye will be holding an open house at the barn next week. Check it out. BTW, Jaye has lived across the road from us all her life and admits to having spent loads of time in and around the river during her growing up years. Dioxin doesn't seem to have had an adverse effect on her. She currently has at least three jobs... mom & grandmother (a brand new grandbaby) - working owner of the Green Applebarn (selling artsy-crafty stuff, apples, cider, donuts & cookies and perennial flowers in season) - and minister at the Freeland United Methodist Church. There it is... that hormesis effect again!

A reminder: Tuesday, June 28, 2005, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., DEQ Community Advisory Panel, Horizons Center, 6200 State St., Saginaw. This is not your OLD CAP... it will be facilitated by a neutral party, neither DEQ nor Dow. This will be the first CAP sponsored by both Dow and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, recognizing the actual resident stakeholders in the dioxin issue. The CAP was originally attended and supported only by environmental extremists, litigants against Dow Chemical, and others looking for a quick buck from a big corporation. The MDEQ & Dow will present a proposal for a Community Advisory Committee. Read their proposed CAC Charter here. The CAC is proposed to be limited to 16 members: 4 from the Midland area, 4 from the Tittabawassee River/upper Saginaw River area, 4 from lower Saginaw River/Bay City area, and 4 “community-at-large” members for a minimum of two years with a rotating membership structure. Unfortunately it sounds like DEQ wants to make a career job out of this Chicken Little - 'the sky is falling' - issue.

About that talk at Delta College earlier this week: The Midland Daily News says EPA talks about Fox River dredging project. The Saginaw News gave Jeremiah's article 'top news' status in the article titled Hydraulic dredge is doubtful here. I chose not to attend this lecture because I considered it a waste of time. However, my friend and neighbor, Howard Vasold, was there. He felt somebody with a logical point of view and actual lifetime experience living along the Tittabawassee River floodplain should be there. Howard said the only people he recognized were newspaper reporters and a couple of Lone Tree Council members. There were a few 'old people' and mostly young people he could only guess were students. Howard told me that when the lecture was over, Michelle Heard-Rhetoric grabbed the microphone to get questions. When the lecturer gave answers, he and much of the audience couldn't hear them... because the guy had a different microphone. He came back loaded down with environutz' propoganda. If anybody is interested, leave a comment or send me an email and I will see what I can do to share some of it.

You know, of course, that the speaker at Delta is an EPA employee. For your information I would like to share this article: EPA Data Not Reliable, Business Lobby Says, By Cindy Skrzycki, in the Washington Post. Yes, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may be a lobby, but one that is our friend. They represent people that keep our economy growing... they provide jobs. These are our representatives!

...and somehow I missed this article Wednesday in the Midland Daily News: Homeowner Fairness Act. Remember that hearing we attended - where I had the privilege of representing the TRVoice? That was the House Government Operations Committee and Tuesday they voted for House Bill 4617. They broadened this bill to include all hazardous contaminants, thus protecting homeowners everywhere in Michigan from the fiasco that occurred here in our area. According to MDN, Moolenaar said the bill would not affect The Dow Chemical Co.'s dioxin remediation agreements with the state.

Happy, smiling & HEALTHY in the Tittabawassee River floodplain, I am your neighbor, Shirley.

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