Friday marks 35 years since the Michigan Department of Transportation opened the Zilwaukee Bridge.

Some believe this Michigan bridge marks the start of Up North. Others just marvel at its vast span and view of the Saginaw River. We’re talking about, of course, the Zilwaukee Bridge.

Experts say the 2020 failure of two dams on a Michigan river was “foreseeable and preventable.”.

Experts say the 2020 failure of two dams on a Michigan river was “foreseeable and preventable.”.

BAY CITY, Mich. – Five people and a dog have been rescued from a sinking boat in Saginaw Bay. The 50-foot vessel was halfway submerged and one person wearing a life jacket was in the water when a Coast Guard rescue boat arrived after 11 a.m. Wednesday, the Coast Guard said Thursday in a release. A line was tossed to the person who was pulled aboard the Coast Guard Station Saginaw River rescue boat. The other four people and the dog were helped aboard the rescue boat from the sinking vessel. Salvage crews were working Thursday on a plan to remove the sinking boat from Saginaw Bay, according to the Coast Guard.

The Tittabawassee River flows past the Dow plant and eventually meets the Saginaw River, which continues into Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. That 50-mile stretch is tainted with dioxins highly toxic compounds that researchers say can damage reproductive and immune systems and cause cancer. Damage from the flood three years ago was minimal and required only minor repairs, EPA's regional office in Chicago said. Dioxins are byproducts of some of the hundreds of chemicals manufactured over the years at the Dow plant, which began operating in 1897. Environmentalists said they were concerned about releases of pollutants aside from dioxins, although Dow said there had been none.