MIDLAND -- State and federal environmental leaders have a spent two years creating guide they hope will heal man-made damage to mid-Michigan's natural resources. Now they want to etch in the details.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representative outlined a broad plan of attack before about 75 attendees Thursday at Midland's Valley Plaza Resort. The plan was two years in the making.

 Officials are calling the initiative the Tittabawassee River System Natural Resource Damage Assessment Plan, although the scope includes the Saginaw River and floodplain, and Saginaw Bay regions affected by decades-old chemical purges at the Dow Chemical Co. plant in Midland. The waterways flow north, so the regions south of the plant aren't under review.

"Our goal is to restore (natural resources) to what they would have been if not exposed (to hazardous substances)," said Lisa L. Williams, a Fish and Wildlife Service official and case manager of the initiative.

The plan will involve studying and restoring natural resources.

Natural resources include land, water, fish and wildlife that live there. Inhabiting fish include carp, catfish and walleye. Wildlife includes the bald eagle, great blue heron, ducks, minks, fox and deer.

Scientists will look at how various chemicals -- including dioxin, arsenic, lead and mercury -- have affected the environment.

Officials will use data already collected in other studies along the river channel -- such as ongoing Dow-funded dioxin search and clean-up efforts along both the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers -- to determine if and where restoration is necessary. Any information previous studies don't provide that could lead to a more in-depth understanding of the region will result in additional research, Williams said.

Full Story: http://www.mlive.com/saginawnews/news/index.ssf/2008/
04/dioxin_plan_looks_to_preserve.html