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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