EPA’s Midwest chief ousted after pushing Dow cleanup

After pursuing Dow Chemical for dioxin contamination near its Michigan-based headquarters, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional administrator for the Midwest has resigned after EPA officials stripped her of her powers and told her to quit or be fired.

Mary Gade became administrator of EPA Region 5, which covers Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, in September 2006. Gade began pressuring Dow about long-delayed plans to remove dioxin-contaminated soil from a 50-mile swath of land. A recent story from the Associate Press succinctly explains Dow’s dioxin legacy in Michigan:

Continued: Click “Read more”

More than a century after Dow Chemical Co. began dumping dioxins into a river flowing past its mid-Michigan plant, the company and regulators are still debating how to cleanse a swath of waters and wetlands that now reaches 50 miles to Lake Huron.

Dow acknowledges tainting the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, their floodplains, portions of the city of Midland and Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay with dioxins — chemical byproducts believed to cause cancer and damage reproductive and immune systems.

After spending $40 million studying the soil and dioxin contamination, Dow Chemical has yet to agree to a plan of action. Some local residents are pursuing a lawsuit against Dow.

“There is no question this is about Dow,” Gade told the Chicago Tribune. “I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I’m proud of what we did.”

Gade was also a force when plans for a massive expansion BP’s Whiting, Ind., refinery created a public firestorm. The proposed facility would have exceeded many federal and state pollution standards, though government efforts to secure an exemption were thwarted.

Great Lakes author and blogger Dave Dempsey had worked with Gade on a project coordinated by the Michigan Environmental Council. Upon hearing of her ouster, Demspey wrote, “I know her to care about the public trust, public health and the air and water. She’s also a Republican (if a moderate one). It’s clear that her willingness to enforce the laws against a recalcitrant polluter was too much for the White House.”