EPA/DNR Public Hearing
Thursday, August 3, 7pm
Brown County Library, Lower Level
515 Pine Street,
Downtown Green Bay
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 14:40:05 +0000
From: "Rebecca Leighton Katers" <cwac@mail.execpc.com>
Subject: Fox River --- public hearing & update
next week
Please attend next Thursday's meeting --- and
show concern
about the toxic PCB contamination of the sediments
of the Fox River
in Northeast Wisconsin (affects all of Lake Michigan,
a four state
area).
The EPA and DNR are jointly holding a public meeting
to explain the
cleanup action for the PCB hotspot called "56/57."
This was the
disastrous dredging demonstration project last
fall which left 3
acres of PCB hazardous wastes exposed on the
river bottom next to
Fort James Corp. in Green Bay, because the demo
started too late in
the fall and used the wrong equipment.
We believe this disaster was
deliberately set up by the polluters to make
dredging look too risky,
to save the polluters from having to dredge other
areas of the river.
(One of the contractors recently issued a press
release saying they
also believed the project was designed to fail.)
The demo was
supposedly a cooperative project between DNR
and the Fox River Group
(7 paper companies who polluted the river) ---
but the companies
controlled most aspects of the project.
In May, the federal EPA stepped in (over DNR objections)
to arrange
a consent decree with Fort James Corporation,
forcing them to
complete the cleanup, starting in late August
or early September.
The meeting and hearing is on Thursday, August
3, at 7:00 p.m. at the
Brown County Library, Lower Level, 515 Pine Street,
downtown Green
Bay.
This is a great chance to ask tough questions
about DNR's disastrous
deal-making with the paper mills.
The final proposed comprehensive
river cleanup plan is due out for comment this
coming fall.