Much Ado in the Tittabawassee River Floodplain...

Dr. Garabrant & company - today, June 9 - 6:00 pm - Freeland Elementary School Cafeteria on Powley Drive - be there. Dr. Garabrant's study is an important part of the 'dioxin fix-it' program. This time the discussion is about tests of household dust. Results have been sent out to local study participants. Questions I have... if you are a smoker - or family of smokers - do you have more dioxin in the dust in your home?

The Latest Dow/DEQ Message...
..If you missed the Dow/DEQ message in local newspapers Sunday, you can read it here. They mention conclusions reached at the previous meetings between Dow & DEQ with selected local stakeholders. More meetings are planned for July & August... the meeting times and places will be broadly publicized. They also plan to send out more information sheets and update the public on Dow's current efforts at remediation of priority one residential properties.

I might have mentioned our backyard was designated 'Priority One' by Dow and DEQ, based on the March 2004 Tittabawassee River flood. Since TRVoice's big mission is to get rid of the 'facility' designation, you can imagine our disdain with 'the priority one' label!

Well guess what! DEQ told Dow to remediate. We were properly notified by AKT Peerless. Since we did not contact them, a representative contacted us. Although neither of us is concerned about dioxin in our backyard, Frank insisted we set up an appointment and follow through with the process.

Day 1 - we met with Annette, an environmental engineer and representative of AKT Peerless. It's a miracle I didn't scare her off... my first statement was, I think this whole thing is a waste of time and money because we are not afraid of any dioxin that might be in our yard. I then asked her if Peerless would check to see if we have dioxin in our yard. The answer is no. That's right, remediation and reality do not meet. Of course, DEQ assumes we are 'priority one' residents.


We answered all of her questions and, because she had to get over to another appointment, we set an appointment for the next day again. We have no furnace ducts to clean, because we use a combination of hot water and solar heat. I didn't choose to have the living room carpet cleaned, but Frank felt he should have the one on the lower level cleaned, so she wrote it down.

Day 2 - Annette walked around our yard, inspecting and deciding what sort of remediation must be done. It seems that bare soil is a big scarey deal. After lots of walking and lots of measuring (by Annette), we had a plan. She gave us a packet with remedial actions to be taken at our residence and a list of companies for us to choose from to do the work.

Day 3 - We chose Murin Company in Freeland for the landscaping work. (actually a few days later)
It only seems right to hire locally. Ted Murin has been in business for thirty years. He met with us right away. We gave him his copy of the work to be done and we walked around the yard, identifying areas 'of concern' listed on the paperwork.

Day 4 - Ted, let us know when you are ready to get to work. We will be here with a camera. I'm anxious to show a bit of before, during, and after photos of the remedial work. I've already begun an album. I call this one simply Priority One... Did I mention?... Ted's company is also the landscaper of choice when it comes time for them on the Festival Park project.