# Granholm Administration Implicated In Aiding An Alleged Polluter



## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

In this op-ed piece by George weeks a member of the Granholm administration is accused of arm twisting the DEQ.

Op-Ed: Was agency too protective?

BY GEORGE WEEKS
Syndicated columnist
For Michigan and five other Great Lakes states, there's no more important federal official on air, water, hazardous waste and pollution control than the Chicago-based Region 5 administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
There were well-deserved kudos for the 16-year reign of Lithuanian-American Val Adamkus, who got the job after long being a highly respected EPA career officer on Great Lakes issues.
In Chicago's EPA office, Adamkus served presidents of both parties before his 1998 election as president of Lithuania.
Now come reports that the Bush administration ousted its latest regional Environmental Protection Agency administrator for being too protective.
Mary Gade was forced out, according to the Chicago Tribune, for her relentless pressure on Dow Chemical to clean up dioxin contamination downstream from its Midland plant -- an issue of long standing.
The Tribune said: "Gade has been locked in a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed plans to clean up dioxin-saturated soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond its Midland, Mich., plant into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. The company dumped the highly toxic and persistent chemical into local rivers for most of the last century."
Gade told the paper she resigned after aides to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson stripped her of her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1. Quintessential walking papers.
She said of her resignation: "There's no question this is about Dow. I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I'm proud of what we did."
Michigan Environmental Council President Lana Pollack said: "It appears that once again Dow Chemical, with help of an administration that has little interest in environmental protection, has succeeded in muzzling a woman of unquestioned credentials and integrity who was doing her job enforcing our environmental laws."
If Pollack is correct, it's a sad saga for a Chicago office of an agency whose creation is a rare positive legacy for President Richard Nixon.
Taking the other side, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, said of Gade: "In 20 years of public life, I have never encountered a more unprofessional and invective public official." Spokesman Sage Eastman said Camp tried to resolve differences but got an "insulting" response from Gade.
(As of this writing, there was no comment from the other northern congressmen, Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, and Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland.)
Ex-MEC Policy Director Dave Dempsey, former environmental advisor to Gov. Jim Blanchard and author of books on the Great Lakes, recalled that the Dow-EPA dioxin dispute goes back to the early 1980s.
Dempsey also said hands of Michigan's state government "aren't clean" on the contamination issue.
He said: "The illegal dioxin pit facilitated by state and county government poses a potentially huge ecological risk and future liability for taxpayers. But the Granholm administration and/or state lawmakers still have time to take appropriate steps to protect the public interest."
Environmentalist Michelle Hurd Riddick of the Lone Tree Council called Gade's ouster "a sad and sorry day for the Saginaw Bay Watershed and for government all the way around."
She also was critical of what she called intervention by Lt. Gov. John Cherry to add "insult to injury" by intervening to have the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality make a ruling favorable to Dow.
Of political interest in this dispute is that Cherry, who as a state senator had a strong environmental record, counts on greens for support for what is likely to be a bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2010.
Of related political interest is that Flint Mayor Don Williamson, according to the Flint Journal, is eying the same gubernatorial nomination as fellow Genesee Democrat Cherry. Also in the Democratic mix may be Genesee County Treasurer Dan Kildee.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

There is a earlier thread started on this topic at 
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2118075#post2118075


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

Mr. Weeks gives a peek into the behind the scenes workings on the issue , I'll bet the public never here's the whole story. They rarely do.


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