Barry Breen/DC/USEPAlUS To Bodine.susan@epa.

gov
05/011200804:20 PM cc
bce
Subject Fw: Mary Gade

TRIBUNE' EXCLUSIVE: EPA's top Midwest regulator

forced out
Mary Gade, based in Chicago, says Bush administration made her quit over
Dow Chemical case'

By Michael Hawthorne

Tribune reporter

2:40 PM COT, May 1,2008

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 wo~ld resign her position, based in Chicago.

Jonathan Shradar, an EPA spokesman in Washington, said Gade has been placed on
administrative leave until June 1. He declined to comment further, saying the agency does not
publicly discuss personnel matters.

For the past year, Gade has been locked in a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed plans
to clean up dioxin-saturated soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond its Midland, Mich.,
plant into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron.

Gade, a former corporate attorney appointed by Bush in September 2006, invoked emergency
powers,last year to force Dow to clean up four hot spots of dioxin, including the largest amount
of the cancer-causing chemical ever recorded in the United States.

In January, Dow urged officials at the EPA's headquarters to intervene after Gade broke off
negotiations intended to renew the terms for a more comprehensive cleanup. Neither side would
reveal details, citing confidentiality agreements, but Gade said Dow resisted taking steps needed
to protect human health and wildlife.
Though regional EPA administrators typically have ,wide latitude to enforce environmental laws,
Gade drew fire from officials in Washington last month after she sent contractors to test soil in a
Saginaw neighborhood where Dow had found high dioxin levels.

She said top lieutenants to Stephen Johnson, the national EPA administrator, repeatedly
questioned her aggressive action against Dow, which long ago acknowledged it is responsible for
the dioxin contamination but has resisted federal and state involvement in cleanup plans.

"There is no question this is about Dow," Gade said. "I stand behind what I did and what my staff
did. I'm proud of what we did."

A Dow spokesman said the company did not know Gade had been forced out. He reiterated the
company's position that it would rather work with the EPA than Michigan officials, who have
,been designated by the agency to oversee future dioxin cleanup.

"We felt and still feel it is in our best interest, and the public's best interest, to resolve' this as
quickly as possible," said John Musser, the Dow spokesman.

Gade is the latest EPA official to become ensnared in the long-standing dispute about Dow's
dioxin problems.

In the early 1980s, the'agency's acting national ad~inistrator was forced to resign after it was
revealed he had ordered regional EPA officials in Chicago to censor a report that documented the
dangers posed by dioxin.

Valdas Adamkus, the regional administrator at the time, later testified before Congress that the
original report clearly stated that Dow was responsible for most, if not all,'ofthe dioxin
contamination in the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers and Saginaw Bay.

Dow dumped dioxin-contaminated waste into the waterways for most of the last century. The
chemical, which is so toxic that it is measured in trillionths of a gram, was a manufacturing
byproduct of the Vietnam-era herbicide Agent Orange and other chlorinated herbicides.

Citing years of independent studies, the EPA says dioxin can cause cancer, disrupt the iInmune
system and alter fetal development.

Gade, who led the Illinois EPA under Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, previously had earned high
marks from Bush administration officials and won praise from environmental groups that often
are at odds with the federal agency.

Last summer, in response to public outrage over BP's plans to dump more pollution from its
Whiting, Ind., refinery into Lake Michigan, Gade convened a special hearing that brought
together regional leaders and company representatives to discuss potential solutions.
The oil company's chief executive flew to Chicago a week later to tell Mayor Richard Daley that
BP would abide by the more stringent terms of its previous water permit.

Gade later blocked a new water permit for the giant U.S. Steel mill in Gary until Indiana officials
took steps to ensure the plant dumped less pollution into a Lake Michigan tributary.

"This is another signal that our federal watchdogs are in turmoil," said Cameron Davis, president
of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a regional environmental group.

Said U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.): "I'm surprised ifanybody is surprised by this. ThIs
administration, from Day One, has always chosen polluters over ~e environment."

When Johnson announc~d that the president had appointed Gade to the regional job in Chicago,
he touted her' "impressive environmental career" that began at the agency two decades earlier.

"With over 20 years of experience in environmental regulation and enforcement," Johnson said at
the time, "Mary is well-prepared to lead the agency's largest regional office."

- Forwarded by Barry Breen/DC/USEPAlUS on 05/01/2008 04:20 PM-

James
WoolfordlDC/USEPAIUS To bodine.susan@epa.gov, breen.barry@epa.gov
05/01/2008 04: 18 PM cc
Subject Fw: Mary Gade

James E. Woolford, Director

Office of Superfund Remediation &
Technology Innovation (OSRTI)
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
US Environmental Protection Agency

Mailing Address:
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Mail Code: 52,01 P
Washington, DC 20460

Physical Address:
Room 5622
2777 Crystal Drive South (Potomac Yard South)
Arlington, VA 22202

Phone:
(O) 703 603-8960 (secretary)
(D) 703-603-8722
(F) 703 603-9146

OSRTI Web Site: http://www.epa.gov/superfund

- Forwarded by James WoolfordlDC/USEPAlUS on 05/01/2008 04:18 PM--
Victoria
 Vanroden/DC/USEPAlUS To Elizabeth Southerland/DC/USEPAlUS@EPA, James
.05/01/200804:05 PM Woolford/DC/USEPAlUS@EPA, Barnes .
Johnson/DC/USEPAlUS@EPA
cc
Subject Fw: mary gade

fyi

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-epa-official-resigns_webmay02,O,4655733.stor
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