This story is breaking in the Chicago Tribune.... EPA political appointees force removal of well-respected EPA Regional Administrator Mary Gade after pressure from Dow Chemical Company.
Links and more below the fold.
Here is the breaking Chicago Tribune story....another dedicated and conscientious EPA official removed under the taint of White House politics and political pressure from Dow Chemical Company.
The Bush administration forced its top environmental regulator in the Midwest to quit Thursday after months of internal bickering about dioxin contamination downstream from Dow Chemical's world headquarters in Michigan.
In an interview with the Tribune, Mary Gade said two top political appointees at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington stripped her of her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.
Gade said she had told the agency she would resign her position, based in Chicago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
Gade had been pressing Dow and the State of Michigan on cleanup of chlorinated dibenzo-dioxins/furans -- some of the most toxic substances known - in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers downstream from the Dow Chemical facilities at Midland, MI. The contamination has spanned decades and extends into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron.
Recently, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service published its assessment of the natural resources damages from the extension Dow Chemical dioxin releases...
See news article on dioxin damage assessment in Bay City Times:
http://www.mlive.com/...
Actual assessment of Dow's dioxin contamination natural resources damages performed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
http://www.fws.gov/...