Another day, another depressing story about the influence of big business on EPA business. The most recent chapter finds Dow Chemical accused of getting Midwest EPA Regional Director Mary Gade fired for trying to force the company to clean up Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron in Michigan, where the company had dumped the carcinogen dioxin for most of the last century.

In September 2006, Gade used her authority to order the company to clean up three locations. Additional testing found more of the toxin in the soil, at concentrations higher than had ever been measured in the environment. Dow insists that dioxin, a byproduct created when making the innocuous Agent Orange, isn't as dangerous as the EPA is making out to be and therefore shouldn't be required to clean up the chemical that is found in concentrations as high as 5,900 parts per trillion in soil, when the Michigan limit is 90 ppt.

According to Dow, "There is all of this mystique about dioxin. Just because it's there doesn't mean there is an imminent health threat." Interestingly, Gade's boss at the EPA in the 1980s was forced to resign when it became public that he allowed Dow to edit EPA reports on dioxin.

After failing to negotiate with Gade for a less comprehensive cleanup, the company went right to Washington, and next thing you know, two of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson's aides are telling Gade she can quit or will be fired by June 1.

We want to applaud those aides for their excellent timing. The Chicago Tribune was about to profile Gade and her fight to get Dow to clean up its mess. So instead of letting Gade hang around a little longer and then giving her the boot, for doing her job well, they have managed to bring the spotlight of the media on Johnson, the EPA, and Dow Chemical.