10 Homes to Be Cleaned of High Levels of Dioxin

May 29, 2008 - The yards and insides of 10 homes along the dioxin-plagued Tittabawassee River must be cleaned up after testing showed high levels of the toxin in the soil outside and the dust inside the homes, state and federal environmental agencies said Wednesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Environmental Quality were meeting with Dow Chemical Co. to determine how the cleanup will proceed. The EPA said it planned to issue an order for an immediate cleanup.

Most, if not all, of the 10 houses already had a simplified cleanup by Dow, the source of the contaminants, in 2005 and 2006, said Bob McCann, spokesman for the DEQ. They were among 230 houses in the river's floodplain where bare soil was covered and carpets and ducts cleaned to minimize possible dioxin contamination.

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