13. Saginaw and Tittabawassee Rivers, USA, Michigan - NORTH AMERICA

The contamination is extensive throughout the floodplain downstream from Dow Chemical’s global headquarter in Midland, Michigan. The very high levels of dioxin in Midland soils and dumps were caused mainly by historical discharges and from incinerators operated by the Dow Chemical Company. A level of more than 1.6 million parts per trillion (ppt) of dioxin was reported in one sample of sediment taken from the Saginaw River.

Source categories of waste contamination by POPs:

  Waste Incineration
  Chemical industry

Data about POPs levels in different environment compartments:

  Soil/sediment
  Food (milk, eggs)

POPs - Persistent Organic Pollutants:

  Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (dioxins)