In 1937, Dow constructed its first waste water treatment that biologically treated waste waters contaminated with phenolic and chlorinated phenolic compounds. 

The phenolic treatment plant was constructed eight years after the City of Saginaw started using the Saginaw River as its source of drinking water, a river that was contaminated by the toxic chemicals that Dow had been releasing for almost forty years.

The phenolic treatment plant did eliminate the foul chemical taste in fish taken from the Tittabawassee River and the downstream rivers and Saginaw Bay, but not the dioxins and furans that would later be found in fish that were taken from these waters.

During the Second World War, the volume of untreated chemical wastes being discharged into the river more than doubled.  In 1946, Dow constructed the General Waste Water Treatment Plant and the majority, but not all, of Dow's discharges to the river were finally biologically treated.

In the early 1970's, complaints about off-flavored fish began to occur.  In 1972, Dow and the MDEQ conducted a joint study that confirmed that caged fish exposed to waters of the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers developed a repulsive taste. 

This section will provide information on the waste water treatment plants and on the effluent ponds that were in service since 1937.

Please be patient as this section is completed.