For immediate release --- July 14, 2001

For more information contact: Rebecca Katers, Clean Water Action Council 
of Northeast Wisconsin, 920-437-7304 work, 920-468-4243 home. CleanWater@cwac.net

$40 MILLION FOX RIVER SWEETHEART DEAL

Green Bay, WI --- Local citizens are once again being blind-sided by a
backroom government and industry deal which undercuts the comprehensive 
plan proposed last fall by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as 
compensation for severe PCB damages to the Fox River and Green Bay. 

The Intergovernmental Partnership (which is now uniformly Republican at 
both the state and federal level) has announced a surprise $40 million 
proposed settlement with Appleton Paper Company and NCR Corporation, which 
they are calling a "downpayment" on the companies' longterm liabilities. 

In exchange, they will not be asked to do more for 4 years and the federal 
Natural Resources Damage Assessment will not be finalized during that 
time.   Specific objections to this deal ---

FAR TOO LITTLE MONEY --- Appleton Paper Company and NCR Corporation are
responsible for up to 70% of the PCB contamination in the Fox River and
Green Bay.   (They created the PCB-coated paper, the other 5 companies 
recycled it.)  The sediment cleanup has been calculated by DNR to cost 
$400 to $700 million, and the compensation for damages and restoration 
would cost an additional $177 to $333 million, according to the U.S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service.   The combined total would be $577 to $1,033 
million.   The Appleton/NCR share of this (at 70%) could be $403.9 to 
$723.10 million.  This means the $40 million settlement is less than 10% 
of even the low range of what the final settlement should be.

FOUR YEAR DELAY IN COMPLETING THE COMPENSATION PLAN --- The Natural 
Resources Damage Assessment has been in development for 7 years already, 
after 5 years of start-up delays before that (due to state 
obstructionism).  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held 5 public 
hearings last November and December where hundreds of people attended to 
show support for the concept of major compensation, though the vast 
majority of testifiers felt the proposed compensation dollars were too 
low.   It is unacceptable to stop the NRDA process cold and make us wait 4 
more years for final resolution. 

LEGAL TIME LAG --- In 4 years, Appleton/NCR could refuse to pay the rest,
which means the governments could be forced to sue.  But the legal process
will be started 4 years late, making the bulk of the settlement come that
much later.   Will a Statute of Limitations run out during this time?   Do
we have an absolute guarantee it won't?  Does it matter that thousands of
people will continue to be poisoned while we wait 4 more years for the
cleanup dollars?

SLOWER CLEANUP --- If the government has to wait 4 years before legal 
pursuit of an uncertain amount of money, this will slow the sediment 
cleanup schedule.   In New York State, the EPA projected that they could 
finish the Hudson River dredging in 5 years.  Given the rapid work and 
volume of sediment removed and treated here on the Fox River in the second 
season of the 56/57 dredging demo project, 5 years is a reasonable 
schedule for the Hudson.   The Fox River project should be similar.   We 
will need the bulk of the money faster than 4 years from now.   Appleton 
Paper's representatives argue that there's an "equipment shortage" so a 10 
year or even 15 year schedule on the Fox is more likely --- but this is a 
phony argument and unacceptable.  If the money's available, the equipment 
will be manufactured in short order.   The public should not have to wait 
any longer than physically necessary. 

AGING STATISTICS --- In 4 years, will the economic, biological and
sediment models still be considered current enough to stand up in court, or
will Appleton/NCR argue that the data is too old and we need new studies? 
The industries have already claimed the Green Bay Mass Balance study data
is too old, because it was collected 10 years ago (at a taxpayer cost of
over $13 million).

SOME MONEY JUST GOES TO GOVERNMENT--- A significant share (don't know how 
much) of the $40 million is earmarked as reimbursement of the 
various Governments for major costs they've incurred as part of the NRDA 
and RI/FS research and preparation over the past 7 years.  So the public 
gets the benefit of less than $40 million.   This is not $40 million for 
cleanup and compensation only.   Could the bureaucrats be overly anxious 
to replenish their department budgets --- while the public is being 
shortchanged in terms of results?

PRE-EMPTIVE ACTION --- The public was expecting to be asked to review the
final comprehensive sediment cleanup plan in about a month (the Remedial
Investigation Feasibility Study --- several inches thick).   We had been
promised extensive public involvement with plenty of background information
about final total costs and remedial options.  We expected public hearings 
and a 60 day comment period.  Instead, this $40 million deal has been 
announced out of the blue, which takes the major polluter out of the 
picture for 4 years.   The public is expected to submit written comments 
about the $40 million deal within 30 days, BEFORE getting a chance to 
review the final comprehensive cleanup plan.  It's impossible to make 
informed comments under these circumstances.

BROKEN PROMISE, POSSIBLE ILLEGALITY --- We were promised the federal 
government would not (and legally could not) sign any settlements until 
after the Record of Decision is complete on the comprehensive Fox River 
cleanup plan sometime this winter or early next year.  (Because the 
compensation formula for future damages will be different if cleanup 
takes 20 or 40 years, for example.)  We were told by former U.S. Fish & 
Wildlife staff that the federal government would never sign-off on such 
early settlements, and that the state's $7 million deal with Fort James 
was potentially illegal and certainly not appropriate.  Now, under the 
Bush administration, the federal government is as bad as the state.

UNKNOWN PROJECTS  --- The government/industry partnership announced this 
deal with no details on how the money would be apportioned.   What 
projects do they envision?  What percentage is for sediment cleanup?  What 
percentage for compensation?  How much for government reimbursement?  This 
was just a media release with hype and no details, and the true detailed 
proposal will be announced again in a few weeks.

APPLETON'S WORKERS AT RISK --- This delay tactic may hurt the workers at 
Appleton Paper because they may be getting a false picture of their true 
liability when they take over ownership of the company in the near future. 
It would be healthier for them to have the full financial picture now. 
The parent corporation may be trying to sneak away from their 
responsibilies, while sticking their workers with the bill.   This is not 
justice.

UNDESERVED POSITIVE PUBLICITY --- Appleton Paper representatives claim 
this is a "no strings attached" agreement, which is absolutely false. 
They've purchased a 4 year delay in paying the bulk of their 
responsibility (~90%).   In addition, this corporation has contributed to 
over a billion dollars of economic damage (not including human health care 
costs) while poisoning thousands of people.   They don't deserve to be 
painted as generous heroes in this settlement.   If they were good 
neighbors they would have stopped using PCBs as soon as their workers 
showed health effects (probably within the first year of use - 1954-55).
Or cleaned up the river right away without being asked when the state 
government first started studying the contamination in 1971.   Instead, 
they've dragged their feet for nearly 50 years.

PUBLIC CONFUSION --- The final comprehensive river cleanup plan will be 
big and complicated enough for the public to absorb and understand without 
throwing in this added complexity.  The governments are deliberately 
creating chaos at a critical time in the public involvement process.

NO PUBLIC HEARING --- The Governments refuse to hold
even one public hearing on this issue.   At a recent scientific conference,
a DNR official boasted that they've had many months of "non-stop daily
collaboration" with the paper mills on the Fox River issue.  Yet, these
same government employees are unwilling to hold even ONE face-to-face
meeting with the citizens who provide their paychecks.  They refuse to
publicly answer questions, discuss the issue in front of the news media, or
hear a public debate on the issue. 

ANTI-DEMOCRATIC TREND ---  This is just the latest in a long series of 
cases where our governmental agencies (especially the state) are refusing 
to hold hearings or give advance notice of major decisions they're making. 
They've abandoned even the pretense of listening to public concerns before 
making multi-million dollar decisions.   Other recent examples:

1. no public hearing by DNR on the huge new PCB dump and river sediment 
processing facility on the west shore of Green Bay (to landspread river 
PCB sludges on farmland, etc.) despite our written request for hearing.

2. no public hearing or prior awareness of the $10 million settlement
contract between the state and 7 paper companies (1997), which brought us
the disastrous first season of the dredging demonstration at Site 56/57,
and the duplicate/competing state Natural Resources Damage Assessment which
cheats the public of fair compensation for PCB damages.

3. no public hearing or prior awareness of the $2 million supplemental
settlement contract between the state and Fort James for additional 
work on the disastrous first season of the dredging demonstration at Site 
56/57.

4. no public hearing or prior awareness of last fall's $7 million
compensation settlement between the state and Fort James Corporation 
(Georgia Pacific) for the Natural Resources Damage Assessment

5. no public hearing on the Fox River Coalition meeting process from
1992-97, when the state wasted years begging the mills to donate the PCB
cleanup dollars (with no attempt to collect compensation at all).

RADICAL CHANGE UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH --- This $40 million 
announcement is a radical policy shift from the promises made last fall by 
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in its final compensation plan under 
the Natural Resources Damage Assessment process.  It also doesn't bode 
well for the upcoming sediment cleanup plan to be proposed in part by the 
U.S. EPA in one month.   We have appreciated the past leadership by the 
U.S. EPA and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, because they provided planning 
funds and promoted action when Governor Thompson refused to take action. 
This weakening at the federal level is a betrayal of the public trust.

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
 

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