EPA ends talks with Dow over dioxin

CHICAGO, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it has ended talks with Dow Chemical over a deal to study and clean up dioxin in Michigan.

The EPA's Chicago office said the deal Dow was offering did not go far enough in protecting human health and the environment along the Tittabawassee River system.

"EPA simply will not accept any deal that is not comprehensive," Ralph Dollhopf, with the Superfund Division of the EPA's Regional Office in Chicago, said Friday in a news release.

Regional Administrator Mary A. Gade said the agency is reviewing its options for ensuring that dioxin contamination in the river system and the Midland, Mich., area can be fully addressed.

The targeted area begins upstream of Dow's Midland, Mich., chemical manufacturing plant and extends downstream to the Saginaw River, its floodplains and Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron.

The EPA alleges past waste disposal practices, fugitive emissions and incineration at Dow have resulted in on- and off-site dioxin and furan contamination.