The Tittabawassee River will rise... the dioxin controversy will continue to flow...

...and I've been catching up on my reading. There really isn't much new going on along the river except:

• Snow is melting; it's melting fast. Ditches are filling up and runoff is headed toward the river. Weather people are predicting rain - lots of rain. Coupled with the runoff this would be enough to make the river rise even before the dams let loose - or perhaps the 'powers over our northern dams' are releasing water even as we speak. They should have done it as soon as there was water flowing... but no, they wait until it will cause a really significant flood downstream toward... well, that would be us - residents along the Tittabawassee River floodplain. In my experience living here, I can honestly say the flooding is a much bigger problem than 'historical dioxin' is.
• John Musser, the Dow employee who works with MDEQ employees, wrote a letter to the editor of Midland Daily News. He states that MDEQ & Dow have worked together and points out results to date... amounting to a great deal of time, manpower and dollars.
  It appears that Dow is interested in people and science, neither of which appears to be necessary components within the MDEQ bureaucracy, nor of concern to the enviro-extremists' queen of Michigan, Ms. Granholm. Dow is aware of the needs of the people living along the Tittabawassee River floodplain (owners of MDEQ-designated 'facilities') and owners of Midland properties, residential and otherwise, existing 'downwind' of Dow (labeled Priority 2(?), but NOT 'facilities' - yet.)
• Chief litigants in their consuming desire for big money from the chemical 'giant' added their own comment to Mr. Musser's letter. Following is directly as they wrote it:

  'Mr. Musser should check out today's Saginaw News editorial. You may be able to fool some of the people in Midland, but the rest of us aren't buying it. KATHY HENRY
  gary henry'

• The Saginaw News as an authority concerning science? ...and WHO does the lady think is being fooled? Here is the Saginaw News editorial they refer as the scientific dioxin authority; it is titled Dioxin cleanup plan falls short, published in SN March 7.
• Oh! Here is the original OurView from Midland Daily News that prompted Mr. Musser to send a letter to the editor... the title: Our View: Compromise will be in order. Actually I also commented on this one... right at the site - online Midland Daily News. For that reason I'm sharing my copy of the article... highlights and all. Just for emphasis, I repeat my main point here:

  '(we residents)...believe that most of the 'historical dioxin' has been redistributed and spread into such small amounts that it's foolish to be concerned dioxin is a problem ...(we) believe there would have been a 'historical problem' of disease if that 'historical dioxin' was a problem.
  
  The only problem we long term residents see is an interfering group of enviro-extremists with an agenda and an overly zealous bunch of bureaucrats.'

• I'm sharing my copy of this last article... from the Bay City Times, just because: Some not convinced it's a good place to spend a lot of time. This is about Tobico Marsh, where even MDEQ admits existence of lead and arsenic - alongside public trails - and yet they let it go by as a non-problem. It's all about, as the article says: '...harmful pollution from an old landfill that's been seeping into the wetlands... out to the Saginaw Bay.'