Table of Contents
CWAC Goes to Court to Increase G-P Settlement
Members Give Support StatementsWater Wars
Water disease could kill 76 million by 2020
Conference on Waters of Wisconsin
Fox River Watch Website a Success!
For more information about PCBs visit www.FoxRiverWatch.com
CWAC Goes to Court to Increase G-P Settlement
Earlier this month, Clean Water Action Council filed a Motion to Intervene
in federal court in Milwaukee, to increase the federal, state and tribal
governments’ proposed final settlement with Georgia-Pacific Corporation
(G-P, formerly Fort James Corp.). The settlement attempts to resolve
Georgia-Pacific’s liabilities for natural resource damages on the Fox River
and Green Bay, due to toxic PCBs discharged by the company.
“The governments have ignored the evidence and public wishes, and undercut
our right to compensation. We have no choice but to challenge this
settlement,” stated Rebecca Katers, Executive Director of Clean Water Action
Council. “It sets a terrible precedent for all the other settlements
to come.”
“We are seeking to get involved at the federal court level to ensure
there is enough money to restore or compensate for the damages,” said Melissa
K. Scanlan, Executive Director of Midwest Environmental Advocates.
Attorney Scanlan is representing Clean Water Action Council in this effort.
In November 2000, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in its $10 million,
7-year study, the “Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan,” had
calculated that the PCB pollution has caused $176 to $333 million in damages.
(The higher figure applies if damages continue another 40 years, which
they will.) This was a conservative assessment which ignored
many factors, such as damages to Lake Michigan, commercial fishing businesses,
discouraged sport anglers, drinking water, swimming, harbor and marina
maintenance, wildlife sicknesses, and human medical costs and lost work.
The damages were primarily based on currently active sport anglers.
According to a DNR study, Georgia-Pacific’s share of responsibility
for the PCB damages is 22.5%; therefore, G-P’s share of $333 million should
be $75 million, at a minimum.
Yet this recent settlement requires G-P to provide only $8.5 million,
plus a few land acquisition projects for an unspecified dollar amount.
The citizens’ Motion to Intervene alleges other shortcomings, such
as the premature nature of a final settlement for natural resource damages
before a final cleanup plan has been chosen.
In addition, the settlement dollars are focused too heavily on human
recreation enhancements, such as walking trails, parking lots and shelters.
Public surveys showed that the public placed higher priority on water quality
and wildlife habitat projects.
“A few boat ramps and paths are not going to cut it,” said Curt Andersen,
of CWAC.
Furthermore, the settlement recreation dollars would be spent
exclusively in Brown Co., neglecting other counties and Michigan,
which have also suffered severe PCB damages.
Midwest Environmental Advocates is a non-profit environmental law center
which represents environmental groups, and local and tribal governments.
Visit their website to learn more about their great projects: www.midwest-e-advocates.org
Members Give Support Statements
As part of our legal challenge, twelve members of Clean Water Action Council, from 5 counties, came forward to explain how the proposed settlement harms them, in affidavits to the judge (summarized below):
Barb and Tom Sydow are residents of Suamico, in Oconto Co. and
have lived in the area for 20 years. Tom is a member of CWAC’s Board
of Directors, and has worked 40 years as a mechanical engineer. Barb
worked in human resources and accounting for 17 years, and has served as
Suamico Town Clerk for the past 1.5 years.
Barb grew up in Milwaukee and learned to sail when she was nine years
old, starting in 1945. Every summer she and her family sailed north
on Lake Michigan to Sturgeon Bay, passed through the channel and cruised
on Green Bay. They drank water directly from the bay, and had a fish
fry onboard every evening with fish they’d caught during the day.
Now, Tom and Barb maintain a 30-foot sailboat at Breakwater Park at
the mouth of the Oconto River, and sail on the bay many weekends in the
summer. They belong to Windjammers Sailing Club. Previously,
they belonged to Green Bay Yacht Club, and maintained their sailboat in
the southern bay, but moved north for several reasons, including the poor
water quality of the southern bay. The sailboat has an on-deck grill
for cooking fish they catch from the boat, though they avoid southern bay
fish due to PCB contamination. They also swim and watch wildlife
from their boat.
In the mid-1980s, Barb remembers seeing deformed wildlife due
to PCB contamination on Kidney Island when sailing from the GB Yacht Club.
In early spring of 2001, Barb was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,
and after 8 months of chemotherapy is now in remission. This
type of cancer has been strongly linked to PCB exposure. Researchers
believe PCBs work in conjunction with a common virus to weaken the human
immune system,which in turn leads to Non-Hodgkin’s. Barb believes
her fish consumption and skin contact with bay waters over the years may
be linked with her cancer.
Tom says, “I think the proposed Consent Decree borders on total outright
fraud. The company has already made its money off contaminating this
ecosystem, and they know that they can get out of their moral obligation
for pennies on the dollar. This Consent Decree does not compensate
the public for damages.”
William Heffernan, Jr. has lived in Green Bay, in Brown Co.,
for 46 years and grew up in the Duck Creek area. He has 2 children:
Jacob (age 11) and Grace (age 7). Since 1963, Bill’s family has maintained
a summer cottage on the east bayshore, in Dyckesville, in Kewaunee County.
He grew up spending summers there, and now his own children are using the
cottage as he did in his youth.
Their recreation area offshore from the cottage, where they fish, swim,
ski, and power boat, is one of the most concentrated PCB hotspots in an
embayment along the eastshore. However, the DNR and EPA have so far
refused to clean up this site.
Bill has been eating the fish there since he was a young child.
In the 1960s they were not aware of any health warnings and ate all the
fish they could catch from the bay (carp, suckers, catfish, bullheads,
native bay clams, perch, lake trout, salmon, bay crabs, and smelt).
After he became aware of PCBs in the late 1970s or early 1980s, he stopped
eating carp, suckers and all of the rough fish. He does not allow
his children to eat any of the fish from this area. This is a big
loss to his family. They also enjoy Door County fish boils, but he
doesn’t
allow his daughter to eat this fish because of the PCB contamination.
He is concerned about the high frequency of cancer in his neighborhood
in Dyckesville, and suspects PCBs may be a contributor.
Bill says, “As children, we caught frogs in this area, but I’ve noticed
there are no frogs any more. My children can’t catch frogs like I
did because they no longer exist in this area. I believe Green Bay
has been ruined by the PCB contamination.”
“The proposed settlement sells out the public. The resources
are contaminated and will continue to be for future generations.
Georgia Pacific is giving us pocket change for boat ramps and picnic tables.
This is an insult. There is no way this proposed settlement even
scratches the surface of compensating the public for natural resource damages
caused by the company.”
Carl Scholz lives in Sturgeon Bay, and has been a Door County
resident since 1951. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Education
and Earth Sciences and a Masters Degree in Educational Administration from
the UW - Madison. He was a vocational agriculture teacher, and then
worked as the Sebastopol School District Superintendent for 34 years.
For 37 years, he and his family also owned and operated “The Farm,” a popular
Door County attraction and living museum of rural America.
Carl has been an active bird-watcher since becoming an Audubon Society
member in 1966. For 30 years, he served on the Board of the Ridges
Sanctuary, a nature center in Door County, and for 15 years belonged to
the Door County Land Trust. He has been active with the Door County
Environmental Council and the Door County Natural Beauty Council for 20
years. He has participated in several activities on Green Bay,
including fishing, bird-watching, swimming, row-boating, canoeing, and
power-boating. In the early 1980s he stopped eating certain fish
due to the health advisories.
Carl says, “I no longer eat any of the larger fish from Green Bay or
Lake Michigan, such as trout or salmon, because of the PCB contamination.
I would enjoy Green Bay and the Fox River and recreate on it more frequently
if it were cleaner.”
Jerry Van Laanen has been a bayshore resident of Suamico, in
Brown Co., since 1969. He is a retired electrician and estimator,
with a business degree, and the founder of the Town of Suamico Harbor Commission,
where he has served as a member for 20 years. Jerry was
also the President of the West Bayshore Property Owners Association from
1973-1979, and coordinated between the association and government agencies
to protect their shoreline property.
Jerry has also been active with the Green Bay Duck Hunters and Wisconsin
Wildlife Federation since the early 1960s. Jerry has served on the
State Waterfowl Advisory Committee of the DNR for 30 years, where they
deal with the rules and regulations for waterfowl hunting.
He is an active duck hunter, angler, and boater, and enjoys swimming in
Green Bay and watching wildlife from his property. He would enjoy
the waterway more frequently, but is concerned about the PCBs.
Jerry’s father was a commercial fisherman near Point Au Sable on the
eastshore of Green Bay. He also fished out of Dyckesville and the
lower bay when Jerry was a child. Jerry ate fish out of the
Bay all his life until the mid-1980s, when he learned about the PCB health
advisories. Also, because of the PCB advisories on ducks in the area,
he now hunts less. He only hunts what he will eat, and because they
are contaminated, he doesn’t hunt as much. He would enjoy Green Bay
and the Fox River and recreate and hunt on it more frequently if it were
cleaner.
Jerry says, “I do not agree with this proposed settlement. The
defendant is getting away with a slap on the wrist. This settlement
is in the paper mills interest and not the public interest. I believe
that my interests and uses of the natural resources of the Fox River and
Green Bay, in particular duck hunting and fishing, will continue to be
harmed by the proposed Consent Decree.”
Robert Schmitz is 79 years old and has been a resident of Green
Bay, in Brown Co., all his life, except for three and one half years in
the Army. He has served on CWAC’s Board of Directors for 17
years. He served several terms as one of three elected Brown
Co. delegates to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. He has also
served as the President of the Wolf River Watershed Alliance, as a delegate
to the Brown Co. Conservation Alliance, as a member of the Wis. Lakes Association,
and has been active in numerous other conservation and environmental organizations.
Bob has always been an active hunter and fisherman. As a child he used
to eat perch from Green Bay, and brought lots of locally-caught fish home
to his family. He stopped eating fish from the bay about 20-25 years
ago when he first started working to get the Fox River cleaned up.
At the same time, he also stopped duck hunting.
He worries that he and his family may have been harmed by consuming
fish and wildlife contaminated with PCB’s. His sister and one of
his daughters passed away due to cancer about a year and a half ago.
Bob says, “The proposed settlement will not compensate me for
the losses I have suffered due to the PCB contamination. I do not
understand how the company convinced the government agencies to go along
with this terrible deal for the public.”
John Hermanson has lived 30 years in Green Bay, in Brown Co.
He has a degree in Regional Analysis with a minor in Environmental Studies
from the UW- Stevens Point. He serves as Treasurer on
CWAC’s Board of Directors. In 1979, he began working at Life Tools Cooperative,
in Green Bay. In 1987, he became a co-owner and manager of Life Tools
Adventure Outfitters, which is now a large sporting goods store in the
community.
His business is dependent on outdoor activities, with a heavy emphasis
on sales of sea kayaks, canoes, and other outing gear. For example,
he teaches kayaking lessons on the bay, and gives kayaking tours on the
bay every Thursday evening in the summer.
His customers sometimes express concerns about exposure to PCBs during
contact with the water on these tours and during the lessons. A few
have said they don’t want to paddle in the lower bay because of the PCBs.
He’s concerned that these fears do economic harm to his business because
potential customers may go to other areas of the state for recreation as
a result.
John believes the potential for his business would be better if people
looked at the bay and the Fox River as a place to recreate. He thinks
there are many residents who do not use these resources because they think
the resources are toxic. He used to do kayak tours on the east
side of the Bay, near UW - Green Bay, but his customers sometimes fall
out of their kayaks into the water. He stopped doing this trip for
several reasons, including the fact that it is a hot spot for PCB contamination.
John says, “I am personally concerned about the PCBs and the health
risk they pose. I stopped eating fish from the bay and river.
I know PCBs can be absorbed through the skin. When I’m paddling on
the bay I’m concerned about this water contact. Many studies
have been done about damages to natural resources caused by the PCB contamination,
but the settlement seems to ignore these. I believe that Georgia-Pacific
should be held to its share of the compensation.”
John’s wife Annie passed away last winter due to cancer, at age 42.
She had frequently eaten local fish on Fridays, as a good Catholic.
John suspects that PCBs may have been responsible for her death.
Laurie Lata has lived in Marinette, in Marinette Co. for 22 years.
She has been an oncology (cancer) nurse for 20 years, after receiving her
nursing degree from the Univ. of Iowa, College of Nursing. She has
been active in the Chappee Rapids Audubon Society for 20 years, as newsletter
editor and former President. She also belongs to the Nature Conservancy
and Sierra Club.
She and her husband Paul moved to Marinette due to its natural resources
and proximity to the bay and rivers. They enjoy wildlife watching,
and live within sight of the bay. They limit their fish consumption
from the bay or Fox River due to PCBs, and worry that their well-water
may become contaminated with PCBs’ due to seepage landward from the Bay.
Laurie says, “I believe the contamination reaches far into Green Bay
and it will not be cleaned up. Given this fact, I believe that I
will continue to be harmed by the Consent Decree because it does not provide
enough compensation for long lasting damages. As one example, I believe
that as a resident of Marinette County, we will be harmed by the Consent
Decree because no recreation projects are planned for Marinette County.
Curt Andersen lives in Little Suamico, in Brown Co. He
serves on CWAC’s Board as Vice President. He grew up on Green
Bay’s west side. In the mid-1950s his family bought land on
Dead Horse Bay, which is on the west bayshore. He frequently swam,
boated, waded, fished, and hunted ducks there. In the mid-1980s,
he stopped because of the PCB contamination. In the past, he and
his family ate local fish and wild game, but they no longer do because
of PCBs.
Curt says, “Not only has this impacted my life, but it has reduced
our property value. Even if I had a boat now, I would not use it
on lower Green Bay because of the PCB contamination. The proposed
settlement is a political sell out. What good is a boat ramp to waters
that are contaminated?”
Curt owns and operates a cabinet shop (The Country Woodworker), and
worries that PCB pollution negatively impacts the local economy and the
viability of his business. Tourism and quality of life are dependent
on a healthy environment.
Mary Standish lives in Sturgeon Bay, in Door Co., where she and
her family have owned an eastshore home on the bay since 1982, and have
been fulltime residents there for 8 years. The property is between
Egg Harbor and Sturgeon Bay. Mary has served on the Egg Harbor Town
Planning Commission for 3 years, and 8 years on the Board of the Door County
Land Trust.
Mary says, “I have read public documents regarding the migration of
PCBs from the Fox River. I worry that, due to bay circulation patterns,
PCBs tend to be concentrated and moving north with sediments along the
east shore towards Door County. These PCB’s may settle out in embayments
and inlets as they move north, and may have already contaminated my family’s
property. We recreate less now on Green Bay.”
Ronald Vanderloop lives in Green Bay, in Brown Co., and has been
President of the Brown County Conservation Alliance for 4 years.
The Alliance is a coalition of 12 hunting, fishing, boating and other outdoor
groups. He is also a Brown County elected delegate to the Wisconsin
Conservation Congress, and serves on their Great Lakes Study Committee.
This Committee covers Lake Michigan, including Green Bay, and has been
discussing the fact that there are only a few Yellow Perch still spawning
in the bay of Green Bay. Ron is also a member of the DNR’s
Lower Fox River Partnership advisory committee.
In the past, he has frequently enjoyed fishing and boating on the bay,
but stopped doing these things around five or six years ago when he learned
of the seriousness of the PCB contamination. He used to eat fish
he caught from Green Bay, but stopped 10 years ago because of PCBs.
Ron says, “I would continue to fish and boat on Green Bay if it were
not so contaminated by PCBs. I am 67 years old right now, however,
and I don’t think I will live long enough to see this area cleaned up and
restored. The proposed settlement is no where near enough money to
compensate me and the rest of our community for all of the damages.”
Rebecca Katers has lived in Green Bay, in Brown Co., for 21 years,
and has served as Executive Director of CWAC since 1993. She and
her family have eaten wild fish and game, and local garden produce, but
worry that this food contains PCBs. (PCBs are elevated in the air
of Green Bay, and fall-out on the landscape.) She and her family
used to boat, swim, fish, wildlife watch and do other recreational activities
on the bay and river, but now seldom do because of the knowledge of PCBs
and concerns about health effects.
Rebecca says, “My family and I have been harmed by PCB contamination
for more than two decades. We would enjoy Green Bay and the Fox River
and recreate on it more frequently if it were cleaner.”
Here in Wisconsin, we take for granted our easy access to abundant,
clean drinking and bathing water, because we have so much of it.
We sit on the shores of the Great Lakes, which contain 20% of the world’s
fresh surface water supply, and our groundwater quality is also excellent
in many parts of the state. It’s a life-sustaining treasure
we must protect.
At the same time, we must recognize our uniqueness and help to address
water problems in other parts of the world, before those problems spill
over into regional or global conflicts.
The UN predicts that 50% of the world’s population will live
in water-scarce regions by 2025, and many of them in regions previously
considered water-rich, like the United States. The issue is especially
urgent because demand for water will grow increasingly fast as larger areas
are placed under crops and economic development.
The UN has found that global water use increased sixfold over the last
century, at twice the rate of population growth. Signs of climate
change linked to global warming are also taking a toll: droughts have increased
in frequency and intensity in parts of Asia and Africa, and sea levels
are rising. In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
monthly drought assessment placed 49 percent of the contiguous United States
in “moderate to severe” drought conditions — due in part to the fifth-warmest
July on record.
In 1995, World Bank vice president Ismail Serageldin made a much
quoted prediction for the new millennium: “If the wars of this century
were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over
water.”
Agricultural production takes up about 70% of water consumed for human
purposes, says the UN. Researchers are focused on getting “more
crop per drop” through the development of drought resistant crops, as well
as through better water management techniques, but much more investment
is needed in this area.
Much of the world’s water problem can be traced to river damming and
the Green Revolution, both of which were embraced by the American government
during the last century and exported globally.
The Green Revolution was supposed to solve the world’s hunger problem
by introducing high-yield miracle seeds to developing nations, especially
India and China. Instead it created an ongoing irrigation crisis by replacing
drought-resistant indigenous crops with water-guzzling varieties. Farmers
were forced to forgo traditional and sustainable irrigation methods; deep
wells became the norm, pulling precious groundwater out of already water-scarce
areas. Then developers began trying to solve the irrigation problem by
building big dams.
According to Sandra Postel of the Global Water Policy Project, a water
conservation advocacy group, there were 5000 large dams (more than 15 meters
high) worldwide in 1950. There are now 45,000. On average, there have been
two large dams constructed every day for the past 50 years. “They were
built with the best of intentions,” says Postel, “to supply hydroelectric
power, irrigation, and public water, and to control floods. But we didn’t
understand the full range of ecological consequences that would unfold.”
Now four of the world’s greatest rivers (the Ganges, Yellow River,
Nile, and Colorado) routinely dry up before reaching the ocean, and water
that normally would roll through the earth and replenish underground aquifers
runs off pavements and rooftops into sewers, eventually ending up (usually
carrying pesticides and toxins) in the ocean, but without moisturizing
forests and marshlands on the way.
A nearby problem is the Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from the
Texas Panhandle to South Dakota and is believed to have once contained
4 trillion tons of pristine water. It’s now mined continuously by over
200,000 groundwater wells. They pull out 13 million gallons per minute,
which is 14 times faster than nature’s replenishing rate. Each year since
1991 the aquifer’s water table has dropped three feet --- a huge amount
when multiplied by the area. By some estimates, more than half its water
is gone.
And that’s not America’s only problem area: one of the heaviest water-using
places on the planet (California) is in serious trouble. The state’s Department
of Water Resources says that if more supplies aren’t found by 2020, residents
will face a shortfall of fresh water nearly as great as the amount that
all of its towns and cities together are consuming today.
The Great Lakes states have signed a compact among themselves to prevent
exports of Great Lakes water outside the watershed, in order to preserve
water levels and the Great Lakes ecosystem, but political pressures may
impose water exporting schemes despite local preservation efforts.
The Great Lakes congressional delegation is not large enough to withstand
larger majority votes in the U.S. Congress from other dry regions.
And the U.S. is still considered water-rich; countries with less abundance
are in even more danger.
Water scarcity is now a serious source of conflict in many places.
Israel has aggressively mined water wherever possible throughout the region,
severely taxing water systems in Syria and Jordan (not to mention Palestinian
townships). And Turkey has caused serious tension with plans to dam the
Euphrates River, thereby diverting much of its life-sustaining flow to
Syria and Iraq.
Bangladesh, which depends heavily on rivers that originate in India,
is suffering terribly now because India has diverted and dammed so many
of its water sources. In Africa, relations between Botswana and Namibia
are severely strained by Namibian plans to construct a pipeline to divert
water from the shared Okavango River. Ethiopia plans to take more water
from the Nile, although Egypt is heavily dependent on those waters for
irrigation and power. And as water tables fall steadily in the North China
Plain (which yields more than half of China’s wheat and nearly a third
of its corn) as well as in northwest India’s Punjab region, experts are
bracing for a highly combustible imbalance between available water supplies
and human needs.
Water disease could kill 76 million by 2020
More than 76 million people, mainly children, could die from preventable,
water-related diseases by 2020, even if current United Nations sanitation
goals are reached, unless urgent action is taken to clean up the planet’s
water supplies. The projected death toll due to dirty water could
outstrip the number of lives lost to the global AIDS pandemic over the
next two decades. The Pacific Institute of Oakland, California,
a non-profit policy research organization, issued this report in advance
of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.
The United Nations now says that some 1.2 billion people around the
globe live without access to safe water and 2.5 billion are without adequate
sewage sanitation, leaving them vulnerable to deadly diseases ranging from
diarrhea and dysentery to cholera, typhoid, fatal worms, and insect-borne
illness.
“Under the most optimistic scenario we examined, the death toll from
water-related disease is still staggering,” the study authors said. “This
largely hidden tragedy ranks as one of the greatest development failures
of the 20th century.”
The Pacific Institute said one cause of the water crisis was the current
emphasis by many countries on building large, centralized water systems
which cannot be maintained by local resources. Smaller, community based
water systems built by local residents are often ignored in water development
plans, but these are the types of systems most needed, according to the
Institute. The study authors blamed governments in developing countries
as well as the United States for failing to provide accessible, affordable
methods of delivering clean drinking water to the world’s exploding population.
Between two and five million people are now believed to die annually
because of water-related illness, most of them children in developing countries.
The World Health Organization, in a report issued in 2000, estimated there
are already four billion cases of diarrhea each year, killing as many as
five million people.
If no action is taken to redress water problems, as many as 135 million
people could die, the report said.
Improved water access will not come cheap. A recent international meeting
held in Stockholm concluded that global water spending would have to rise
by at least 35 percent - or $25 billion annually - if the UN’s Millennium
goal for water is to be met.
Another growing problem is the privatization of water supplies, with
private corporations gaining control of water for profit. The problem
in some areas isn’t water flow but cash flow: Poor residents can’t pay
privatized rates. (We’ll feature an article on this topic in a future
newsletter.)
Sources:
Wars Over Water are Rising Issue- UN, Jonathan Katzenellenbogen, Business Day (Johannesburg), 8/19/02
Advocates Warn of Thirst and Turmoil for a Parched Planet, World Running Short on Water. Ginger Adams Otis, Village Voice, 8/21/02
As the world grows thirsty, a vital question: Who owns water? Mort Rosenblum, AP, 8/20/02
Millions Look to Global Freshwater Export; Dirty water puts millions at risk for fatal illnesses. Many countries lack clean supply, study finds. ENS, 8/18/02
Half of U.S. Under Drought- EPA Offers Water Saving Tips. ENS, 8/16/02
Earth Summit must address water shortages, U.N. report says. Edith M. Lederer, AP 8/16/02
Conference on Waters of Wisconsin
“Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children’s
lifetimes. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we
live on the land,” states Luna Leopold, Honorary Chair,Waters of Wisconsin
Forum.
The Waters of Wisconsin Forum, to take place October 21-22 at Monona
Terrace in Madison, is a working conference with “legs” —- a gathering
of leading water experts and concerned citizens to lay the groundwork for
a comprehensive long-term policy for sustaining Wisconsin’s waters.
The forum is the culmination of a statewide initiative sponsored by the
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
And it’s an opportunity to celebrate, through art, poetry, and music,
the importance and beauty of water in our lives, to remind ourselves why
this precious and endangered resource must be protected.
For two years, Waters of Wisconsin (WOW) brought together representatives
from widely varied areas of water use and management —- including agriculture,
industry, conservation, all levels of government, public agencies, education,
and Native American tribes —- to address the use, management, and long-term
protection of Wisconsin’s waters.
For registration and info, visit the WOW website at http://www.wisconsinacademy.org/wow/forum/
or contact Amanda Okopski, WOW Forum Director, (608) 263-1692, ext.
22. Register by Sept. 30 for the early registration discount.
Fox River Watch Website a Success!
Our special Fox River website, www.FoxRiverWatch.com,
has been available now for slightly more than a year, and has been a helpful
reference to many people.
In that time more than 35,000 visitors have used the site, from more
than 89 different countries. English-speaking countries dominate
(from the U.S., Canada, UK, New Zealand and Australia), but we also have
daily visits from many other parts of the world.
We use a tracking system to tell us the categories of visitors to our
site. We don’t know individual e-mail addresses, but we can recognize
server domains to tell roughly where the visitors are from.
Many visitors use local e-mail servers, so we know local visits are common.
Educational organizations have been heavy users, with entire classes
of students logging on to study the Fox River issue all at once.
Many grade-school students are using the site to research term papers and
answer questions. A number of college and university researchers
are also logging on. Several PhD level researchers have told
us our site is helpful to them. We’re looking forward to more student
visits this fall.
It’s also been interesting to note the number of repeat corporate traffic
we’ve received, including visits from a variety of paper industries, other
PCB-using industries, lawyers, insurance companies and public relations
firms. We’re clearly being watched.
Also interesting are the frequent visits from military organizations
--- Navy, Army, Corps of Engineers, plus the “NIPR,”whatever that is.
(The U.S. military has many Superfund sites contaminated with PCBs, which
may be one of the reasons for their visits. Environmental activists
in other parts of the U.S. and worldwide have their hands full trying to
get the U.S. military to clean up threats posed by their toxic messes.
The military behaves similarly to corporate PCB sources, often denying
the existence of problems.)
Not surprisingly, the Fox River Cartoons section is very popular on
our website, with many enjoying the political humor of the Green Bay News
Chronicle’s amazing Lyle Lahey. (We’re just about to load a new batch
of his Fox River cartoons.)
If you haven’t visited the site lately, we’ve also loaded more
information recently about our legal action and Natural Resources Damage
Assessments. In addition, we’ve maintained a running history of news
media articles on Fox River and water quality related issues locally and
worldwide.
It’s a great place to look for information on PCB chemistry and health
effects, history, the Fox River, Green Bay, political processes, corporate
profiles, sediment cleanups, natural resource damage assessments and action
alerts. Thousands of links are provided to help with searches.
We’d like to thank Alice McCombs, our webmaster, for all the work she’s
put into creating and maintaining the website. It couldn’t have happened
without her leadership, technical skills and training.
We’d also like to thank the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for
the Technical Assistance Grant which partly funded the start-up of this
website as a public service. It allowed us to provide a public information
resource to balance against the biased information being spread by Fox
River paper industries.
Go to: www.FoxRiverWatch.com
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