DNR
Watch
Inside Governor Thompson's
DNR
The Natural Resource
Accountability Project
Research Report No. 1
August, 1998
Thompson Defends Fox River Polluters
Against Responsible Cleanup
The Purpose of this Report
Project Members
Summary
Introduction
Background
The Purpose of this Report
This is the first in a series of research reports discussing Governor
Thompson's political control over the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
(DNR).
The Governor has now appointed all seven of the citizen members of
the Natural Resources Board which sets policy for the DNR. In the
1995 state Biennial Budget decision, the Governor also made the DNR Secretary
a political appointment of the Governor, making the DNR the subject of
serious political influence.
In the same Budget, the Governor eliminated the Wisconsin Public Intervenor
Office, which advocated for public rights in natural resources and served
as watchdog over the DNR and other government agencies. Subsequent
to the Governor gaining this control in 1995, many negative changes have
occurred in the DNR.
Each report in this series will explore a specific example of these
negative changes.
Project
Members
Citizens for a Better Environment,
Clean Water Action Council, ECCOLA
(Environmentally Concerned Citizens of the Lakeland Area), Northern
Thunder, Sierra
Club - John Muir Chapter, Wisconsin's
Environmental Decade. Report #1 was written by, Rebecca
Leighton Katers, phone (920) 437-7304, Executive Director of
Clean Water Action Council.
Summary
Gov. Thompson has received huge political contributions from the paper
industry and its allies. In exchange, for the past 12 years he has
used his control of the DNR to block cleanup of one of the worst toxic
hotspots in the country. He is actively fighting against federal
actions to clean the river. Thompson has maneuvered the DNR into
a corrupt contract with the paper industry which undermines the federal
Superfund and NRDA cases while leaving the DNR unable to enforce an appropriate
cleanup. At the same time, Thompson has eliminated paper industry
opponents on this issue, such as Public Intervenor Thomas Dawson.
Under Thompson's control, the DNR is proposing cleanup options which are
insufficient to meet the need, violate Wisconsin's water quality standards,
and fail to protect the public or wildlife.
Introduction
For at least 22 years, the DNR has known the Fox River is seriously
poisoned with PCB chemicals and other toxins which threaten public health
and wildlife. 64
Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are a family of 209 chemicals.
Several human studies have shown that exposure to PCBs, primarily through
eating contaminated fish and game, causes adverse health effects, such
as damage to the nervous, immune, circulation, reproduction, and hormone
systems. PCBs can also cause liver, brain and skin disorders.3
"The 39-mile Lower Fox River, which flows north from
Lake Winnebago into Green Bay and Lake Michigan, is the most significant
source of toxic PCB chemical contamination in the Great Lakes region."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International Agency
for Research on Cancer both classify PCBs as probable human carcinogens.3
Sensitive, or highly exposed people are at risk from PCBs, including
women of child-bearing age, nursing babies and young children, the elderly,
and cultures with high fish consumption, such as low income anglers, Southeast
Asians, and Native Americans.3
Since 1976, fish consumption advisories have warned Fox River, Green
Bay and Lake Michigan anglers to avoid many fish species altogether, and
severely limit consumption of others.3 Since 1987, a duck-eating
advisory has warned hunters to limit eating of local ducks.62
The wildlife also suffers. In studies conducted since the 1970s,
fish and wildlife have shown reduced fertility, deformities,
physiological abnormalities, thyroid dysfunctions, behavioral changes,
and high mortality levels in their young.3
According to the EPA, the Lower Fox and Green Bay have levels of PCBs
in water, fish, and other wildlife which range from about 100 to 10,000
times safe levels. Their computer models show that if no cleanup
occurs, these unacceptable PCB levels could persist more than 100 years.3
Background
The 39-mile Lower Fox River, which flows north from Lake Winnebago into
Green Bay and Lake Michigan, is the most significant source of toxic PCB
chemical contamination in the Great Lakes region.1 PCBs are
of concern because they accumulate and concentrate in the food chain, from
low background levels up to toxic levels in fish, wildlife and humans.3
PCBs were used in carbonless copy paper from 1957 to 1971.3
Two Appleton area mills, NCR Corporation and Appleton Paper were major
producers of this PCB coated paper.6
The manufacture of PCBs in the U.S. was stopped in 1977.3
From the 1950s to the 1990s, the two carbonless paper producers and several
paper recycling companies (Fort James Corp., Riverside Paper, P.H. Glatfelter
Co., Wisconsin Tissue Mills, and US Paper Mills Corp.) released more than
250,000 pounds of PCBs into the Fox River with wastewater and sludge.6
Many of the PCBs flowed directly into Green Bay and Lake Michigan, but
approximately 90,000 pounds settled into the sediments of the Fox River,
with certain sediment hotspots containing high concentrations of PCBs.5
The sediments now release about 600 pounds of PCBs per year on a continuous
basis, and the Fox River is the source of up to 70% of the PCBs which reach
Lake Michigan.1 Scientists fear a major storm could scour the bottom
and move much larger masses of the remaining PCBs into the bay and Lake
Michigan, where the PCBs become difficult, if not impossible, to remove.
Such a storm at Saginaw Bay, Michigan, scoured 6 feet deep into contaminated
sediments, hampering PCB cleanup efforts in that area.2
Report Sections
The Purpose of this
Report
Twelve Years of Delay
- A Fox River Clean-up Timeline
Deals, Consultants,
Paper Industry Allies, and Tourism
The Health Risks
of PCBs and Landfilling Contaminated Sludge
Legislative Connections,
Paper Company Economics, and Industry Control of the Process
The Fed's Step In
Conclusions and Recommendations
The Paper Money
Trail - Political Campaign Contributions to the Governor
DNR Report Study
Methods
References
|