We're in the news again....

...but first, would you buy a used car from this guy? I sure wouldn't! This is Steve Chester, director of MDEQ. They tell me he's a lawyer by profession and he is the one standing by his mantra that our homes are facilities because the law says so!!! His mantra has nothing to do with science. Not only that, the law says so because the MDEQ got the legislators to put that law there in the first place. Chester and his diggers are in backyards all over Michigan telling citizens what they can and cannot do with their property.

We, the taxpaying residents of Michigan, are paying this guy to go into a few of our backyards and then judge us all guilty of owning toxic facilities. He won't even tell us what percentage of the total homes in the Tittabawassee River flood plain he has actually tested - or whose - but I know the Henrys had their property tested. Their testing pictures were in newspapers. I haven't seen any MDEQ workers in any yards near my home and he says my home is priority one - implying it's loaded with dioxin just because it's in the high water area for the big 2004 March flood!!!

Maybe you should just cancel spraying the dandelions in your yard this year because your neighbor in the next block sprayed his. You would be using the same kind of science Mister Chester uses.

I hope you have read the forum piece by Midland Matters and Tittabawassee River Voice in the Midland Daily News today. If not you can find it here at http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15977446&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472539&rfi=6. The same sorry three sent MDN their same sorry opinions. Just for fun I'll respond to them here:

• Mr. Linhard: You are partially correct. Common sense is a rare commodity in the leadership at MDEQ and apparently in the governor's mansion. MDN did pretty good in enforcing the 300 word rule - Bill, Len & I each used less than 300 words!!!
• Ms. Henry: It is insulting to the majority of residents that you should want to include ALL 2000+ of us in your personal vendetta against Dow Chemical.You may choose greedy tort lawyers over legislation through our elected representatives but most of us prefer changing the wrong. I see you finally admit '..there isn't a study that gives absolute proof that people in the area have more illness because of the dioxin...' and the way your lawsuit is going I'd say it's you who are 'beating a dead horse.'
• Mr. Stoll: Pay attention. We don't want individual tests. We just want to be treated like U.S. citizens. We want to be called 'innocent until proven guilty.' This could be done by removal of the label 'facility' from our residential properties.
• Mr. Bergman: Your solution sounds good but here's what you don't know. Most of the residents along the Tittabawassee River floodplain can not afford the money up front for their own dioxin testing. We are mostly working stiffs with families, as well as farmers and retirees. FYI some of the litigants had their properties tested by the MDEQ in order to get the ball rolling on their litigious venture.