"This is outrageously low compensation considering the many past and
future decades of dangerous public and wildlife health risks caused by
G-P's negligent pollution over a large region. The economic damages
have been staggering," stated Rebecca Katers, Executive Director of Clean
Water Action Council of N.E. Wisconsin, Inc. "This is not justice."
While we're anxious to get these issues resolved in time for cleanup
and restoration to start in the spring of 2003, we oppose this settlement
for several reasons:
1. The settlement meets only 20% of G-P's full responsibility
--- We were told last year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in its
Assessment to expect total compensation of $333 million if the sediment
clean up will take more than 40 years to achieve its goals, which it will.
According to a DNR study, Georgia-Pacific's share of responsibility is
approximately 22% of this total, or $73 million. If justice
is to be served and fair compensation granted, G-P needs to provide the
full $73 million. Last year in a widely criticized first draft of
this settlement, DNR claimed they were getting $55 million in benefits
for only $7 million from G-P, which was an obvious sham. This settlement
of $14.5 million is also a sham.
In addition, the previous $7 million figure was supposed to cover only
the State of Wisconsin's share, and did not include further dollars
to compensate Michigan, tribal and federal damages. Therefore, the
doubling of dollars is misleading. This is definitely not a "better
deal."
Keep in mind that the original $333 million was a conservative estimate,
a major political compromise from a higher calculated value closer to $600
million, and even that number did NOT include many major types of economic
damages such as:
a. Economic losses on Lake Michigan proper (70% of waterborne
PCBs in this Great Lake come from the Fox River.)
b. Economic losses over many decades due to discouraged recreational
anglers who stopped fishing or never started due to PCBs. The losses
were only calculated for currently active anglers
c. Economic losses to many commerical fishing families who were driven
out of business, and to wholesale and retail customers no longer able to
purchase locally harvested fish.
d. Damage to non-adjacent counties (not on the waterfront) with businesses
and residents who were economically harmed by the PCB contamination.
e. Damage to economic interests in Lake Trout and Cormorants which suffered
poisoning, deformities, tumors and reproductive failure.
f. Human medical costs and lost work productivity, which could be enormous
over many decades. Roughly 40,000 people along the Fox River and Bay currently
face PCB cancer risks equal to smoking 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day, due
to their fish consumption habits. Numerous non-cancer PCB risks (thyroid
disease, diabetes, heart disease, memory problems, learning disabilities,
etc.) may affect thousands more.
2. Settlements in the Dark --- How can citizens evaluate the fairness
of a closed-door settlement with Georgia-Pacific, without knowing what
the final Compensation and Restoration Plan says? (The total plan
for all the mills won't be released until later this summer.) We're
opposed to this premature piece-meal approach. The percentage of
responsibility allocated to G-P could tell us more about the overall size
of the total Restoration Plan, but the agencies have refused to tell us
their final calculation of G-P's percentage of the total. Citizens
have a 30 day comment period starting soon, but they aren't being given
key information.
3. Wrong types of projects funded --- Almost 60% of the G-P settlement
($8.5 million) is for human park and recreation enhancements, which was
heavily criticized a year ago. In recent years, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service conducted numerous public opinion surveys (at high cost)
and learned that the public placed highest priority on projects designed
to stop toxicity. Second priority was to protect and enhance
fisheries and wildlife habitat. Third priority were projects designed
to stop land run-off pollution (non-point pollution). A distant fourth
were enhancements for human recreation, such as boat ramps, docks, parking
lots and trails. Most Northeast Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula Michigan
residents believe we already have a lot of these human amenities, but the
waterways and wildlife deserve much more attention. Now, it
seems the federal government has abandoned the carefully prepared and expensive
Resource Compensation Determination Plan (RCDP) which went to public hearing
and was finalized last year. Instead, G-P is being allowed to fund
high-profile local projects, and public wishes are being ignored.
G-P is allowed to make big political points in the community where its
mills are located, while the other impacted communities get nothing.
4. Northern communities completely neglected --- ALL of the $8.5
million in G-P recreational dollars are targeted for Brown County communities
only. NONE are planned for Door, Oconto, Marinette Counties, or Upper Michigana
communities which also have PCB fish-eating warnings due to Fox River pollution.
If recreation is the goal, then ALL the northern people should have equal
access to these recreation dollars. Instead, it appears G-P
has been allowed to buy-off local officials with juicy projects, with every
Brown County municipality getting a little piece of the action. In
addition, all the land purchases for wildlife habitat are on the Bay's
westshore, with nothing for the eastshore or Door County, though most of
the PCBs are concentrated up the Door County shoreline. The DNR claims
that future settlements with the other mills may balance these issues better,
but how can the public be sure when we have a comment period now but won't
be allowed to see the big picture plans until later? The DNR claims
to be following the old Remedial Action Plan which was started in 1986,
but that effort was dominated by Brown County people and included no one
from the impacted north. And that plan did not designate recreation projects
to the exclusion of wildlife habitat. The DNR is misrepresenting
and misusing the work of a lot of people, including members of Clean Water
Action Council.
5. The Bush Administration has abandoned federal leadership ---
This G-P settlement is just a larger version of the DNR's surprise solo
$7 million fiasco proposal in November 2000. It contains all the
same flaws which were roundly criticized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and other federal agencies at that time, under the Clinton Administration.
It's obvious that the federal government is now taking a back seat and
allowing the state to decide everything, even though the state fought against
negotiating for ANY compensation for several years. We are
left with a token effort for one of the biggest PCB sources on the river.
The public's interest is NOT being served.
6. The Cart Before the Horse --Under the Clinton Administration,
we were promised many times that the Restoration Plan and individual settlements
like this couldn't be finalized until after the sediment cleanup plan and
EPA's Record of Decision are announced (later this summer).
This timing sequence was important because the scale of the restoration
is supposed to be based on how long it takes for the sediment cleanup to
achieve results. If it takes longer, then more compensation is due from
the polluters and the dollar amount should increase. Now, under the Bush
Administration, we're being told that it's OK for the Restoration Plan
to be released before the ROD, deliberately keeping the public in the dark
on this issue.
7. Stopping the Federal Process --- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (under the Bush Administration) now tells us that they plan no
"Report of Assessment," though this is supposed to be the final stage of
the Natural Resources Damage Assessment process. This
final report would have included a "responsiveness summary" (the agencies'
written responses to citizens' hearing testimony and letters). Apparently
citizens wasted their time submitting written comments and testifying at
the hearings. This report would also have included a "preliminary
estimate of damages" with more complete totals than previously reported,
and a "demand for sum certain" (a final bill to be presented to the responsible
polluters.) We were told that as long as the governments were satisfied
with the negotiated settlements, the Report of Assessment could be skipped,
because the polluters don't want to have to pay for its preparation.
The Service says they will write the report only if a polluter sues to
oppose their portion of the Restoration Plan. Citizens will be asked to
comment on the final proposed Restoration Plan without the benefit of this
information, and we may never have a final accounting. Under
these circumstances why should we bother to comment at all?
8. Taypayer Costs Should Be Fully Reimbursed --- This G-P settlement
allocates only $1.6 million to reimburse federal costs of assessment.
It has been expensive for the government to prepare the multi-document
scientific damage assessments and economic damage models. At the
end of the 8 year federal process, we were supposed to learn what the total
costs were, but that may not happen now. We do know that at a similar
site in Montrose, California, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service assessment
research process cost $35 million, which chewed up a huge percentage of
the final settlement. Here on the Fox River and Green Bay, we must
insist that these costs are separate, and in addition to, the compensation
and restoration settlement from the polluters. The state's costs
should also be reimbursed completely. (After all, why should taxpayers
be stuck with this?) It's obvious that G-P's $1.6 million offer isn't
enough.
9. Industry Pressure Politics --- We've heard may instances of
the Fox River Group of paper industries sending company lawyers and lobbyists
to meet with our local, state and federal agency officials and our elected
representatives, keeping up constant lobbying pressure for weakening the
cleanup and compensation plans. Ordinary citizens have no way to
balance against that pressure, and it's obviously costing us millions of
dollars now.
10. Bad Precedent Being Set --- This is the first of 7 settlements
with individual corporations which dumped PCBs in the Fox River.
If G-P gets away with paying only 20% of its responsibility, the others
will demand equal treatment. This will be a royal rip-off for the
public.
For more information about this recent news, contact Clean Water Action
Council, at 920-437-7304
