6.19.2005
Jan asked in a comment...
why we got all the free landscaping. For starters, I guess I've talked so much about it that I thought I'd told all my kids! Sorry Bug... I must have told one of your sisters twice. Here is a link to a photo of our house on March 8, 2004. See the 2 rows of trees at top of the picture? The river is normally contained between them... remember? ...and it's not even very deep most of the time because people who control the dams above our river like to keep their lakes at a high level for boaters on their lakes! The Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality took this pic & a woman who works there gave your dad the photos, including this one.
The MDEQ says, because the Tittabawassee River visits our backyard at least once a year, we have dioxin back there... and last year it came up closer than anytime since the 100 year flood in 1986. That was the year we had 5 feet of river in our house where it lingered for a couple of weeks.
Although Dow Chemical has been cleaning up their act for a couple of decades now, DEQ is saying the dioxin needs to be cleaned up. A bunch of local environmental nutcases have gathered some ne'er-do-wells in a lawsuit against Dow (& wanted to include all of us in a class action) and they are also pushing DEQ to make Dow clean up the dioxin in our backyards and dredge the river, etc. etc. This is where I came in last year, saying if generations have lived here with no ill effect on our health, what harm is that dioxin doing?
As a result, the lawsuit is still on hold; we (TR Voice) have state legislative support on our side and most of the community... to get the stigma of being a 'facility' out of our residential backyards.
The landscaping is part of an agreement between Dow Chemical & the MDEQ to remediate residential properties that might contain dioxin. The method is to cover all bare soil with clean dirt, mulch, gravel, etc... but only to 'priority one' properties... that is property where the river came within 100 feet of our actual doors! That is where we come in. We are a priority one residence.
Since I & my friends at TRVoice contend that we don't know if we have dioxin and furthermore we don't care because the amount is so small it doesn't matter, I wasn't going to take the remediation, but your dad convinced me we should. Result? I blogged about it. The dioxin matter is all about politics and I just want it out of my backyard because I do not agree with the politics of any extremists... be they environmental or religious, or whatever!
Now... are you glad you asked?
The MDEQ says, because the Tittabawassee River visits our backyard at least once a year, we have dioxin back there... and last year it came up closer than anytime since the 100 year flood in 1986. That was the year we had 5 feet of river in our house where it lingered for a couple of weeks.
Although Dow Chemical has been cleaning up their act for a couple of decades now, DEQ is saying the dioxin needs to be cleaned up. A bunch of local environmental nutcases have gathered some ne'er-do-wells in a lawsuit against Dow (& wanted to include all of us in a class action) and they are also pushing DEQ to make Dow clean up the dioxin in our backyards and dredge the river, etc. etc. This is where I came in last year, saying if generations have lived here with no ill effect on our health, what harm is that dioxin doing?
As a result, the lawsuit is still on hold; we (TR Voice) have state legislative support on our side and most of the community... to get the stigma of being a 'facility' out of our residential backyards.
The landscaping is part of an agreement between Dow Chemical & the MDEQ to remediate residential properties that might contain dioxin. The method is to cover all bare soil with clean dirt, mulch, gravel, etc... but only to 'priority one' properties... that is property where the river came within 100 feet of our actual doors! That is where we come in. We are a priority one residence.
Since I & my friends at TRVoice contend that we don't know if we have dioxin and furthermore we don't care because the amount is so small it doesn't matter, I wasn't going to take the remediation, but your dad convinced me we should. Result? I blogged about it. The dioxin matter is all about politics and I just want it out of my backyard because I do not agree with the politics of any extremists... be they environmental or religious, or whatever!
Now... are you glad you asked?
# posted by sherle : 10:43 AM
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I am glad I asked and thanks for answering. I think it looks great and I'm happy for you that you had all that work done.
WOW! That's gorgeous! Oh. . . I was looking at the crew. . . I'll go back and look at the work!! Kidding! It DOES look great! I can't wait to see it up close! How will the upkeep be?
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