United States
  Environmental Protection
  Agency
For more information
You can view documents related to
the Tittabawassee River, Saginaw
River & Bay Contamination Site in
information repositories set up by
EPA and MDEQ. The repositories
are located in the Grace A. Dow
Memorial Library, 1710 W. St.
Andrews St., Midland; the Hoyt
Main Library, 505 Janes Ave.,
Saginaw; and the Alice and Jack
Wirt Public Library, 500 Center
Ave., Bay City.


Information office
On June 23, EPA will open a
community information office in
the Saginaw County Courthouse,
111  S. Michigan Ave., Saginaw.
Initial hours will be Tuesday
through Thursday,  8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(closed from noon to 1 p.m.). Check
the Web site for more information.
Go on the Web
EPA dioxin investigation:
http://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/
dowchemical
MDEQ dioxin information:
http://www.michigan.gov/deqdioxin
Sign up for the listserv
If you'd like to be emailed site
updates, send a blank message to:
dow_dioxin-subscribe@lists.epa.gov
Contacts
These EPA community involvement
coordinators can answer questions:

  Patricia Krause
  312-886-9506
  krause.patricia@epa.gov
  Don de Blasio
  312-886-4360
  deblasio.don@epa.gov
  Region 5 toll free:
  800-621-8431, 9:30 a.m. - 5:30
  p.m., weekdays
At MDEQ contact:
  Cheryl Howe
  517-373-9881
  howec@michigan.gov
Proposed  Community


Involvement Activities

Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River & Bay Contamination Site
Midland/Saginaw/Bay City Region,  Michigan	June 2009

"Community involvement" is the name EPA uses to identify its process
for engaging in dialogue and collaboration with communities affected by
Superfund sites. Community involvement plans are an important part of this
process. EPA interviews community members to learn more about how people
get their news and to gauge how they want to be involved in the Superfund
process.
The information gleaned from these interviews is used to create a detailed
strategy that guides EPA's efforts to keep the community informed and involved
during the cleanup. We have not completed interviews for the Dow site, but
we have done enough to have proposed some specific activities to start on
immediately.
The following "interim community involvement plan" is based on limited
interviews that were done in January 2009. As we conduct more interviews and
do more work with the community, we will likely identify other techniques to
help share information and involve the public.

Initial Community Involvement Plan
The goals that EPA wants to achieve through its community involvement
activities at this site include:
    •   Seeking input from the affected community throughout the process.
    •   Utilize local knowledge to ensure better decision-making at the site.
    •   Provide the community with the facts and tools to participate in a
       meaningful way throughout the process.
    •   Incorporate new ideas from the community on how best to engage
       them in the process.
    •   Build upon the network of community interests to enhance
       opportunities for public involvement.
To achieve these goals, EPA will conduct many community involvement
activities in the area.  This document highlights the activities proposed for the
Dow site.  Some of these activities — especially forming a community advisory
group and establishing a community information office — could take several
months to fully implement while others are already under way or could be
implemented sooner.
EPA's senior management at Region 5 and Headquarters will stay engaged
with and oversee the  implementation of the community involvement activities
at the site to ensure the goals noted above are achieved. EPA will continue
to collaborate with MDEQ and will build upon their program to involve the
community.

Proposed Community Involvement Enhancements
Because of the size, complexity and the heightened interest of area residents,
EPA is proposing to include the following enhancements in the community
involvement activities.
    1)  EPA Community Information Office:  EPA will provide a local staffed
       office where residents can get information, ask questions and share
       concerns. EPA would ensure the office is convenient to the public. It

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       will take several months to fully implement an
       information office of this nature, but EPA has
       made arrangements to open a temporary office
       immediately (see box on page 1 for details).

    2)  Community Advisory Group: EPA will help
       facilitate the establishment of a group of
       individuals from the community to advise the
       agency during different stages of the cleanup. The
       Community Advisory Group (CAG) will  represent
       the balanced and diverse interests within the
       community. Although the CAG's role would be
       more specifically defined as the group forms, EPA
       would expect the CAG to assist with exchanging
       information, seeking input and providing for
       timely and equitable access of information to all
       stakeholders. It may take several months to form
       the CAG.

    3)  Workshops: In order to  enhance the knowledge
       base of the community with respect to
       Superfund, EPA will sponsor a series of
       workshops for the community advisory
       group members and the general public. The
       workshops would cover topics such as site
       history, Superfund process, risk, and cleanup
       technologies. EPA would also solicit suggestions
       for workshop topics from the public working
       through the CAG. Instructors would be a
       combination of EPA, MDEQ and other experts.
       EPA would anticipate more frequent workshops
       during the first year (e.g.,  one every three to four
       months) and then as needed or requested by the
       community. The first workshops will be held  in
       fall 2009.

    4)  Internet: EPA and MDEQ already have well-
       populated  Web sites for sharing information
       about the cleanup and will expand its use of the
       Web and other Internet technologies. EPA has
       established a listserv that will allow site updates
       to be sent  to the public  rapidly via e-mail (see
       box on page 1 for details).  EPA will also  post
       site documents including, but not limited to,
       technical reports, cleanup proposals and cleanup
       decisions along with routine updates, including
       photos as appropriate. EPA will establish a
       section on the Web site  to post answers to
       questions asked by community members
       to ensure that everyone has equal access to
       information. Through the web site, EPA will also
       work toward providing access to responses to
       Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for
       the site.
Additional Proposed Community Involvement
Activities
The following list highlights the additional community
involvement activities that are being proposed at the site.
Many of these activities are routinely implemented at
sites and are already under way.

    1)  Technical Assistance Plan/Technical Assistance
       Services for Communities: These mechanisms
       provide communities with the ability to obtain
       information and technical assistance.

    2)  Community interviews: Interviews help EPA
       understand how much community members
       know about the site, how they get their
       information and how they would like to be
       involved. EPA has already completed one round
       of interviews and is currently planning another
       round.

    3)  Fact sheets: Brief, plain language fact sheets will
       be issued as appropriate to inform the public
       about important developments. The fact sheets
       will be sent to the site mailing list and also
       posted to the Web. One fact sheet has already
       been sent out. WTe will also develop topic-specific
       fact sheets to explain some of the more complex
       issues (e.g., dioxin). Fact sheets will be translated
       to other languages as necessary.

    4)  Information repositories: EPA has already
       established site information repositories at public
       libraries in Midland, Saginaw and Bay City. EPA
       will ensure site documents including, but not
       limited to, technical reports, cleanup proposals
       and cleanup decisions along with routine updates
       are maintained in the information repositories.

    5)  Public meetings: As appropriate, EPA will hold
       public meetings to inform community members
       about site developments. EPA will not rely solely
       on large group meetings but instead will offer
       additional  formats including multiple, smaller
       gatherings.

    6)  Editorial boards/reporter briefings: As
       appropriate, EPA will engage in face-to-face,
       sit-down briefings with reporters and editorial
       boards as a way to help them understand the
       technical and regulatory complexities of the
       cleanup.

    7)  Site tours: As appropriate, EPA will conduct tours
       and demonstrations at various places along the
       site to help residents  get a better understanding
       of what is proposed for the site.

    8)  Kiosks/displays: A number of businesses and local
       organizations have offered to let EPA set up small
       information displays in their buildings. This will
       be a simple and effective way to raise EPA's profile
       in the community and to distribute fact sheets
       and other information.

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