Monday, August 29, 2016

EPA proposes plan for long-awaited Kanawha dioxin cleanup

More than a dozen years after they promised to more thoroughly investigate the problem, government regulators and Monsanto Co. are joining in a proposed plan to clean up dioxin contamination from the sediment in a 14-mile stretch of the Kanawha River west of Charleston.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed late last week that the parties all prefer an alternative that would install stone caps over certain contaminated spots in the river sediment, rather than conducting a broader and more expensive dredging project to remove material contaminated with toxic dioxin pollution from Monsanto’s former chemical plant in Nitro and from the company’s waste dumps in the area.
The EPA published a short public notice about the proposal in the Gazette-Mail Thursday, and it made available a nearly 1,500-page report that describes the study of the contamination and the consideration of various alternatives for cleaning it up.
“This was done over several years and much, much discussion,” said Joseph Gabriel, environmental remediation manager for Monsanto. “All of the options were evaluated, and the overall opinion was this was the best alternative.”
Jake McDougal, a program manager with the Department of Environmental Protection Office of Environmental Remediation, said Friday that the proposal is “a consensus agreement” between federal and state officials and Monsanto.
The cleanup — covering an area of the Kanawha to the Winfield Lock and Dam — would address toxic contamination of the river that dates back many decades, to when Monsanto began in the late 1940s to make a powerful herbicide ingredient called 2,4,5-T.
In its best-known use, the federal government bought 2,4,5-T to make Agent Orange, the defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War. Monsanto’s 2,4,5-T was contaminated with a highly toxic dioxin compound known as 2,3,7,8-TCDD.
Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis, infertility and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even small exposures can accumulate to dangerous levels.
- See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-business/20160827/epa-proposes-plan-for-long-awaited-kanawha-dioxin-cleanup#sthash.7tSLoAry.dpuf
More than a dozen years after they promised to more thoroughly investigate the problem, government regulators and Monsanto Co. are joining in a proposed plan to clean up dioxin contamination from the sediment in a 14-mile stretch of the Kanawha River west of Charleston.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed late last week that the parties all prefer an alternative that would install stone caps over certain contaminated spots in the river sediment, rather than conducting a broader and more expensive dredging project to remove material contaminated with toxic dioxin pollution from Monsanto’s former chemical plant in Nitro and from the company’s waste dumps in the area.

The EPA published a short public notice about the proposal in the Gazette-Mail Thursday, and it made available a nearly 1,500-page report that describes the study of the contamination and the consideration of various alternatives for cleaning it up.
“This was done over several years and much, much discussion,” said Joseph Gabriel, environmental remediation manager for Monsanto. “All of the options were evaluated, and the overall opinion was this was the best alternative.”
Jake McDougal, a program manager with the Department of Environmental Protection Office of Environmental Remediation, said Friday that the proposal is “a consensus agreement” between federal and state officials and Monsanto.
The cleanup — covering an area of the Kanawha to the Winfield Lock and Dam — would address toxic contamination of the river that dates back many decades, to when Monsanto began in the late 1940s to make a powerful herbicide ingredient called 2,4,5-T.
In its best-known use, the federal government bought 2,4,5-T to make Agent Orange, the defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War. Monsanto’s 2,4,5-T was contaminated with a highly toxic dioxin compound known as 2,3,7,8-TCDD.
Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis, infertility and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even small exposures can accumulate to dangerous levels.

More than a dozen years after they promised to more thoroughly investigate the problem, government regulators and Monsanto Co. are joining in a proposed plan to clean up dioxin contamination from the sediment in a 14-mile stretch of the Kanawha River west of Charleston.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed late last week that the parties all prefer an alternative that would install stone caps over certain contaminated spots in the river sediment, rather than conducting a broader and more expensive dredging project to remove material contaminated with toxic dioxin pollution from Monsanto’s former chemical plant in Nitro and from the company’s waste dumps in the area.
The EPA published a short public notice about the proposal in the Gazette-Mail Thursday, and it made available a nearly 1,500-page report that describes the study of the contamination and the consideration of various alternatives for cleaning it up.
“This was done over several years and much, much discussion,” said Joseph Gabriel, environmental remediation manager for Monsanto. “All of the options were evaluated, and the overall opinion was this was the best alternative.”
Jake McDougal, a program manager with the Department of Environmental Protection Office of Environmental Remediation, said Friday that the proposal is “a consensus agreement” between federal and state officials and Monsanto.
The cleanup — covering an area of the Kanawha to the Winfield Lock and Dam — would address toxic contamination of the river that dates back many decades, to when Monsanto began in the late 1940s to make a powerful herbicide ingredient called 2,4,5-T.
In its best-known use, the federal government bought 2,4,5-T to make Agent Orange, the defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War. Monsanto’s 2,4,5-T was contaminated with a highly toxic dioxin compound known as 2,3,7,8-TCDD.
Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis, infertility and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even small exposures can accumulate to dangerous levels.
- See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-business/20160827/epa-proposes-plan-for-long-awaited-kanawha-dioxin-cleanup#sthash.7tSLoAry.dpuf
More than a dozen years after they promised to more thoroughly investigate the problem, government regulators and Monsanto Co. are joining in a proposed plan to clean up dioxin contamination from the sediment in a 14-mile stretch of the Kanawha River west of Charleston.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed late last week that the parties all prefer an alternative that would install stone caps over certain contaminated spots in the river sediment, rather than conducting a broader and more expensive dredging project to remove material contaminated with toxic dioxin pollution from Monsanto’s former chemical plant in Nitro and from the company’s waste dumps in the area.
The EPA published a short public notice about the proposal in the Gazette-Mail Thursday, and it made available a nearly 1,500-page report that describes the study of the contamination and the consideration of various alternatives for cleaning it up.
“This was done over several years and much, much discussion,” said Joseph Gabriel, environmental remediation manager for Monsanto. “All of the options were evaluated, and the overall opinion was this was the best alternative.”
Jake McDougal, a program manager with the Department of Environmental Protection Office of Environmental Remediation, said Friday that the proposal is “a consensus agreement” between federal and state officials and Monsanto.
The cleanup — covering an area of the Kanawha to the Winfield Lock and Dam — would address toxic contamination of the river that dates back many decades, to when Monsanto began in the late 1940s to make a powerful herbicide ingredient called 2,4,5-T.
In its best-known use, the federal government bought 2,4,5-T to make Agent Orange, the defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War. Monsanto’s 2,4,5-T was contaminated with a highly toxic dioxin compound known as 2,3,7,8-TCDD.
Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis, infertility and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even small exposures can accumulate to dangerous levels.
- See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-business/20160827/epa-proposes-plan-for-long-awaited-kanawha-dioxin-cleanup#sthash.7tSLoAry.dpuf

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