An Undeserved Award

Earlier this week, Michigan's Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) awarded Dow Corning its "Neighborhood Environmental Partners Program Award." The award was created "to recognize facilities and their community partners who have worked together on environmental and natural resource projects to improve the local environment in their communities." Dow Corning, based in Midland, Michigan, was given this award for creating a recycling program at its facility that employs mentally handicapped individuals. While this effort is admirable, Dow Corning's environmental record is far from praiseworthy.

Token Efforts and Serious Failings

An equally-owned joint venture of Dow Chemical and Corning, Dow Corning is most famous for its silicone breast implants that were the subject of many class-action lawsuits in the 1980s and 1990s. The company came under scrutiny by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2006 for leaking cancer-causing dioxins into the Tittabawassee River, which runs mere yards from their facility in Midland. The level of pollution was so severe that people who ate fish from this river had elevated levels of dioxin in their blood. Dow later reached an agreement with the EPA to remove 50,000 cubic yards of dioxin-contaminated sediment and earth from the riverbed and levees of the Tittabawassee River. Seemingly undeterred by this brush with the EPA, Dow Corning was charged with violating federal standards on emissions of volatile organic compounds and particulate matter, both of which contribute to the formation of smog. Dow Corning paid $95,000 to settle the issue. Looking at the company's comprehensive environmental record makes it clear that they do not deserve accolades from the Michigan DNRE. Companies should not receive a pat on the back from state agencies for token efforts to improve the environment amid other serious failings. A company that fills a river with carcinogens and the air with smog is not the kind of neighborhood environmental partner that anybody wants.