The Tittabawassee floodplain and a long cleanup

Midland grew up around the Dow Chemical Company, which has made chemicals here since the 1890s. For much of the 1900s, before the rules were what they are today, the plant’s waste left a long-lasting pollutant called dioxin in the soil of the Tittabawassee River floodplain — the low ground along the river below the plant, stretching downstream toward Saginaw.

This has been the subject of a major, long-running cleanup overseen by the U.S. EPA and the state. Over the past decade or so, soil in affected yards along the river was tested and, where levels were high, dug up and replaced; work on the river itself wrapped up its final stretch in 2024, and Dow remains responsible for monitoring the area going forward. Two practical things for a buyer near the river below Midland: first, ask whether a property is in the floodplain and whether any soil cleanup was done on it — records exist. Second, because dioxin builds up in fish and animals, the state health department posts advisories about eating fish and wild game from the river, worth reading if you fish or hunt. The EPA, the state environmental agency (EGLE), and the state health department all publish details online.