Nominated by the Trump White House to run the EPA’s Superfund toxic cleanup program, attorney Peter C. Wright is drawing a lot of scrutiny.
It’s because he once was the lawyer who called himself the “dioxin lawyer” for Dow Chemical headquartered in Midland, Michigan.
It was March when President Trump nominated him to be the assistant administrator at EPA and he is already working in an advisory role while he waits for congressional approval. As the New York Times reported over the weekend, the EPA pointed to Wright’s expertise in environmental law and his tenure at Dow as valuable qualifications.
There is some irony in the fact that the man who spent 19 years at Dow and once was a lead negotiator in talks with the EPA now could become the man on the other side of the chemical cleanup issue. While he was with Dow, the company was accused by the EPA of cleanup delays, testing lapses and other missteps.
Dow, maker of Saran wrap, styrofoam, Agent Orange and even mustard gas once released effluents into the Tittabawassee River, resulting in a 50-mile stretch of dioxin contamination that eventually made its way into Lake Huron.
After merging last year with DuPont, Dow is now among the companies most affected by Superfund cleanups across the U.S. Reports suggest it is responsible for nearly 14 percent of the sites on the EPA’s list of priority Superfund cleanups or 171 locations across the country.