If you learned your town was polluted with toxic waste, you'd just want to get it cleaned up. That's not how things have worked out with dioxin contamination in central Michigan. Dioxin's been a problem for at least 30 years, but the Dow Chemical company, the federal government and the state of Michigan are just now hashing out final cleanup plans. We had Shawn Allee tour the area to see the extent of the problem and what's at stake for the rest of us. This story is a preview for the Environment Report's week-long series "Dioxin Delays" that will be available beginning Monday, November 9th on PRX.
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Piece Description
If you learned your town was polluted with toxic waste, you'd just want to get it cleaned up. That's not how things have worked out with dioxin contamination in central Michigan. Dioxin's been a problem for at least 30 years, but the Dow Chemical company, the federal government and the state of Michigan are just now hashing out final cleanup plans. We had Shawn Allee tour the area to see the extent of the problem and what's at stake for the rest of us. This story is a preview for the Environment Report's week-long series "Dioxin Delays" that will be available beginning Monday, November 9th on PRX.
Transcript
If you learned your town was polluted with toxic waste… you’d just want to get it cleaned up.
That's not how things HAVE worked out with dioxin contamination in Central Michigan.
Dioxin's been a problem for at least 30 years but the Dow Chemical company, the federal government and the state of Michigan are just now hashing out final cleanup plans.
We had Shawn Allee tour the area to see the extent of the problem and what’s at stake for the rest of us.
**
I wanted to begin my tour with interviews at Dow’s chemical plant in Midland.
That’s where dioxin and related compounds were created: the dioxins were by-products of chemical manufacturing.
After a month of calls and emails to Dow … a spokeswoman said the company was interested in talking about the future – not the past.
But the past is the reason there’s a problem now.
So, I start my tour a bit down...
Read the full transcript
Intro and Outro
INTRO:If you learned your town was polluted with toxic waste… you'd just want to get it cleaned up.
That's not how things have worked out with dioxin contamination in central Michigan.
Dioxin's been a problem for at least 30 years but the Dow Chemical company, the federal government and the state of Michigan are just now hashing out final cleanup plans.
We had Shawn Allee tour the area to see the extent of the problem and what's at stake for the rest of us:
**
Additional Credits
Editor, Lester Graham
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