Thursday, February 15, 6:30 p.m.
at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary,
Nature Education Center, Upstairs,
East Shore Drive, Green Bay
Because the DNR refuses to hold any hearings, we've decided to hold
a
public program and public hearing ourselves, to allow public
discussion of the deals being negotiated behind closed doors between
the state and paper industry as compensation for the Fox River and
Green Bay PCB damages. DNR recently settled for only $7
million in
compensation from Georgia Pacific (formerly Fort James Corp.), in
contrast to the parallel federal compensation plan calls for $170 to
$333 million from the 6 responsible companies.
We believe such MAJOR decisions must be presented and discussed
publicly before deals are finalized. Afterall, the U.S.
Fish &
Wildlife Service held FIVE public hearings on the federal proposal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thursday, February 15, 6:30 p.m.
at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary,
Nature Education Center, Upstairs,
East Shore Drive, Green Bay
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rebecca Katers, of Clean Water Action Council, will give a half hour
program outlining the most recent, as well as the history of, the
surprise DNR settlements. A comparison will also be made
between
the state and federal compensation (NRDA) proposals. Following
a
question and answer period, we will open the floor to testimony from
the audience, just as in a normal public hearing. Testimony will
be
videotaped and submitted into the formal state record on this issue.
Public officials and the news media will be invited.
We invited Greg Hill, the DNR's lead on these agreements, to give a
presentation in Green Bay explaining DNR's actions and to answer
questions, but he refused. The state's media announcement of
the
settlement said the DNR would be happy to give such presentations,
but
apparently this is untrue.
The Gov. Thompson version of the DNR speaks often about its new effort
to provide "customer service" but it appears Thompson wasn't referring
to the public. Instead, the DNR now refers to the paper industry
as
its "clients." Gov. McCallum's approach to this issue is
still
unknown.
Please attend this hearing and bring friends! We must
should that
the public cares.
------------------------------------------------------------
It's also important that you write by *** FEBRUARY 21st *** and object
to DNR's secret deals which undercut the public's right to fair
compensation for PCB damages. It's not enough to simply clean-up
the
PCBs, the corporations must make up for our losses over many decades.
Our state government should be fighting for public compensation,
but
the DNR is clearly doing the least they can.
Don't let DNR get away with this!
Details of the DNR and Georgia Pacific agreement can be viewed online
at:
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/water/wm/lowerfox/Sediment\fjnrdacp.html
Hardcopies can be viewed at these libraries:
Appleton Library, 225 N. Oneida St., Appleton
Brown County Library, 515 Pine St., Green Bay
Door County Library, 104 S. Fourth Ave., Sturgeon Bay
Oneida Library, 201 Elm St., Oneida
Oshkosh Library, 106 Washington Ave., Oshkosh
Written comments should be postmarked by February 21 and sent to:
Greg Hill, NRDA Coordinator, WDNR
101 S. Webster St.,
P.O. Box 7921,
Madison, WI 53707-7921
Rebecca Leighton Katers
Clean Water Action Council of N.E. Wisconsin
1270 Main Street, Suite 120
Green Bay, WI 54302
Ph: 920-437-7304
FAX: 920-437-7326
CleanWater@cwac.net
