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NEWS

Thursday, June 28, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
City faces legal costs for

Gelman dioxane plume 

Contract with law 
firm now $445,000

By RACHEL CUNNINGHAM

Summer Daily News Editor

Ann Arbor City Council will 
see an increase in legal costs 
regarding clean-up efforts of 
the 1,4 dioxane plume con-
taminating the area’s ground-
water.
1,4 dioxane is a carcinogen-
ic organic compound used in 
many industrial settings. The 
plume was discovered after 
inspections revealed years of 
improper wastewater dispos-
al by Gelman Sciences Inc., 
an Ann Arbor-based manu-
facturing company. There are 
fears that the plume could 
spread to the Huron River and 
Barton Pond, two main water 
sources for the city.
The 
city 
approved 
an 
$150,000 increase to its con-
tract with Bodman PLC, a 
Detroit-based law firm, in the 
fight against Gelman to clean 
up the plume.
Councilmember Jack Eaton, 
D-Ward 4, feels the council’s 
involvement in the manner 
helps residents understand 
the precedence and severity 
of the issue.
“The important part of the 
state litigation that we’re now 
a party to is that it provides 
public information about the 
spread of the plume and how 
contaminated water is as it 
spreads underneath the (sur-
face),” Eaton said. “We will 
be at the table and able to get 
a voice about the decimating 
that kind of information.”
Councilmember 
Chip 
Smith, D-Ward 5, feels that 
added expenses will also be 
more efficient than relying 
on the federal government to 
help.
“It’s an expensive legal 
cost but I think the cost of 
not doing anything is so much 
greater,” Smith said. “The 
EPA is not going to come in 
and help us. To put our faith 
in the EPA of Scott Pruitt is 
wholly ignorant.”
According to Eaton, state 
regulations have only allowed 

for mitigation by the state 
instead of more stringent 
intervention and clean up. 
Standards on healthy dioxane 
levels in residential drink-
ing water were also outdated 
when previous water testing 
took place, therefore allow-
ing unsafe water to be used 
in residential homes. The 
governor’s office lowered the 
acceptable standards from 85 
parts per billion to 7.2 parts 
per billion in 2016.
Eaton says are residents 
do not believe the city has 
addressed the plume ade-
quately.
“I think the residents of 
Ann Arbor are concerned that 
we haven’t done enough over 
the years,” Eaton said. “This 
has gone on for decades. The 
state has been really cevile 
[COPY: servile?] in its efforts 
to address this and the city 
hasn’t been a party to this and 
hasn’t aggressively pursued 
any action against the com-
pany.”
The city wants the company 
to be held fully responsible for 
the costs and clean-up efforts.
The 
U.S. 
Environmental 
Protection Agency initially 
held off on designating the 
plume as a federal Superfund 
site, but has been working 
with city and state officials 
to resolve the issue. This 
came after an area petition 
by Ann Arbor Township, Scio 
Township and the Sierra Club 
Huron Valley Group was sent 
to the EPA to designate the 
site as a Superfund zone. The 
city of Ann Arbor did not join 
this petition.
“As the largest municipal-
ity in the area affected by 
the plume, it just seems like 
we would take a leadership 
role and we didn’t,” Eaton 
said. “Nonetheless, the EPA 
is now monitoring the litiga-
tion between the state and 
the polluter and we hope that 
in some point in time they 
become convinced that they 
should be ordering actual 
cleanup.”

The Daily sits down with candidate 
for governer Shri Thanedar

By GRACE KAY 

Summer Managing News Editor 

By RACHEL CUNNINGHAM 

Summer Daily News Editor 

Editor’s Note: The Michigan 
Daily does not officially endorse 
Shri Thanedar for governor. The 
Daily continues to reach out to 
other gubernatorial candidates for 
comments and interviews.
The Michigan Daily recently 
met with gubernatorial candi-
date Shri Thanedar to discuss his 
platform and goals for Michigan 
if elected governor. An Indian-
born entrepreneur, Thanedar is 
running against former state Sen. 
Gretchen Whitmer and Univer-
sity alum Abdul El-Sayed for the 
Democratic candidacy. The pri-
mary election is set to take place 
Aug. 7.
Thanedar says he is unlike any 
other candidate running for gov-
ernor in Michigan. He doesn’t 
come from a family of wealth and 
opulence, and he doesn’t look or 
talk like any of the other candi-
dates. He is an entrepreneur who 
came to the United States with 
$16 in his pocket and eventually 
worked to build a multimillion 
dollar business. 
Ultimately, Thanedar argues 
his knowledge, work ethic and 
life experiences make him the 
candidate Michigan needs.
“I look different. I don’t look 
like the past governors. I’m an 
immigrant,” Thanedar said. “I 
think I’m the only immigrant 
that’s running for governor. I 
speak differently more than 
most people in Michigan. But my 

point is that say four years from 
now I write my State of the State 
address and I’m talking about 
taking our education to the next 
level, fixing the roads and we 
are approaching near the Top 10 
… would it matter where I was 
born? Would it matter in what 
accent I said those words? That’s 
what I want Michiganders to 
remember when they go to vote 
on Aug. 7. Any Democrat that is 
‘good enough’ isn’t good enough.”
Thanedar runs a progressive 
platform
If elected as the governor of 
Michigan, Thanedar plans to 
make education his top priority.
“I want to be known as the 
education governor Michigan 
never had because education is 
important to me,” Thanedar said. 
“These are not just talking points, 
I draw them from my experiences 
of life. So when I talk about edu-
cation and why education needs 
to be improved, education was 
the ladder for me to pull myself 
out of poverty.
Thanedar 
also 
plans 
to 
increase the minimum wage, cre-
ate a skilled work force and mod-
ify the tax structure.
“One of the more unusual fea-
tures of my tax structure is that 
I will have any family that makes 
$50,000 or less state income 
tax exempt; they will not pay 
income tax,” Thanedar said when 
explaining key changes he would 
implement as governor. “I will 
raise the minimum wage to $15 
and tie it to inflation.”
Working with Republicans at 
the state level
Thanedar says when it comes 

to working with people who 
share different viewpoints and 
perspectives, he is open to new 
ideas and willing to work with 
those he may not always agree 
with.
“Somebody who has complete-
ly opposite views from me, we 
start talking and I’m open to new 
ideas, that’s who I am,” Thane-
dar said. “I have very thick skin. 
I don’t ever tweet at 3 A.M. in the 
morning. I can listen to differ-
ent viewpoints. I have run small 
businesses. I have dealt with 
teams; I’ve worked with teams. 
I’m used to this kind of openness 
and bouncing off things and look-
ing at both sides of the issue, so I 
think I’d work well.”
Thanedar believes with his 
experience as a business owner 
he could work well with mem-
bers of the Republican party at 
the state level.
“I think they would respect me 
because I’m not just talking when 
I talk about business, when I talk 
about finance, when I talk about 
jobs,” Thanedar said. “I’ve come 
from experience and I think I 
will get the respect that the other 
candidates may not get because 
I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a busi-
ness person. When I talk about 
finance I understand finance. It’s 
not something I memorized from 
somewhere.”
Setting himself apart from the 
other Democratic candidates
Thanedar explains the role 
of governor is about much more 
than giving poetic speeches.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Democratic candidate details campaign platform, experience

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

MAX KUANG / DAILY

