The New York Times. (May 20,2020). Dam Failure Threatens a Dow Chemical Complex and Superfund Cleanup. Retrieved August 30, 2020 from, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/climate/michigan-dam-dow-chemical-superfund.html
Floodwaters from two breached dams in Michigan flowed into a Dow chemical complex, threatening a Superfund toxic-cleanup site downriver. First the floodwaters overwhelmed the ponds designed to hold brine water, used by Dow. They flooded causing two dam failures and spreading the contaminated water. Over the years Dow has dumped many chemicals into their water, which led to dioxin contamination all along the Tittibawasee and Siginaw Rivers and even into Lake Heron. Dioxin can, “damage the immune system, cause reproductive or developmental problems, and cause cancer”. The Superfund cleanup for the Tittibawasee river began in 2007, and 13 years of work could have been ruined by the flooding. Although Dow agreed to pay $77 million to fund projects that would work to restore nearby fish and wildlife habits, they still released pollution from the plant for decades. The river is so polluted that signs next to it warn people to not eat the fish there or some in contact with the soil and river sediment. 60% of these Superfund sites are affected by flooding and wildfires countrywide. Climate change is causing this new and increasing problems, however the Trump campaign refuses to provide more information on how the government plans to adapt and ready these sites to withstand the changing climate.
This article shows how we must learn and adapt around climate change, because no matter how hard we try to undo our polluting mistakes the earth has the power to wipe out our efforts. Not only must we adapt, but we must still keep every person and business of all sizes accountable for contributing to pollution and climate change. The careless release of toxic chemicals from the Dow plant has caused almost unfixable damage to the rivers ecosystem and environment, it has gone so far it has reached Lake Heron, a haven for much of the little fresh water we have.
I thought this article was really interesting and you did a great job summarizing it. However, I must disagree with your claim that this is a problem of climate change. Although flooding is increased with climate change, flooding was not the source of the problem. Dow should not have been dumping those chemicals while knowing they were extremely detrimental to the environment. I hope someone makes them take responsibility.
I also think it is extremely important that this company takes responsibility and is punished. However, I do think these actions and the process of polluting our clean water sources ties into climate change, because in doing so we are changing our planet, reducing the amount of clean water we have, and damaging ecosystems that rely on these freshwater sources. Everything is connected and any little thing we can do to reduce the destruction humans are causing on this planet must be done.