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1935 --- Monstanto Corporation noted serious PCB health effects in its workers.

1937 --- Scientists begin publishing PCB health effects research in scientific health journals.

1954 --- Appleton Paper Co. and NCR Corp. began making PCB-coated paper.  Five other companies began recycling trimmings and wastepaper with PCBs.   All 7 companies began dumping PCBs in the Fox River,Green Bay and Lake Michigan.

Mid-1950s --- Lake Trout populations crashed, and several other species of Great Lakes fish became extinct.   (PCBs may have been a contributing factor.  Several studies have found PCBs injure newly hatched Lake Trout fry.  PCBs are generally contaminated with dioxins, and dioxins are believed to have caused Lake Trout extinction on Lake Ontario.)

1960s --- Scientific evidence mounted of human and wildlife health effects from PCBs.

1971 --- Appleton Paper Co. stopped making PCB coated paper.  Recyclers kept processing PCB coated papers, and discharging PCBs until about 1990.

1972 --- DNR started studying PCB contamination of the Fox River, but took no action to clean them up or warn anglers.   (DNR has now studied Fox River PCBs for 30 years.)

1976 --- DNR issued report on PCBs in the Fox River.  Fish-consumption advisories were issued.

1977 --- PCB manufacturing banned in U.S.  Products were phased out over 2 years.

1980s --- Researchers find high rates of deformities and reproductive failure in fish-eating birds on Green Bay and Lake Michigan, and tumors in Fox River walleyes.

1985 --- Commercial fishing for carp and other large fish shut down on Green Bay.  Many family businesses closed.

1986 --- Fox River Remedial Action Plan (RAP) committees start meeting. They rejected Superfund hazardous waste cleanup proposal, saying litigation would delay cleanup for another 10 years.

1988 --- The RAP document was finished and the implementation phase started.   Public hearings drew hundreds of local citizens in support of cleanup and compensation.

1989-92 --- DNR and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service worked together to start a joint NRDA

1992 --- DNR cancelled NRDA, and created another study committee, called the Fox River Coalition, to try "cooperative approach" again.  (A hopeless effort.  Corporations don’t usually donate hundreds of millions of dollars out of the goodness of their hearts.)

1993 --- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service formally invited DNR to work as a co-trustee in an NRDA.   DNR declined.  The FWS proceeded despite the state’s lack of support. 

1993-2001 --- Governor and DNR lobbied aggressively against the federal NRDA, and publicly stated they were opposed to the concept of compensation and restoration.  They wanted dollars reserved for sediment cleanup only.

1994 --- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service publicly announced plans to start a federal NRDA. 

1996 --- Negotiations occurred between federal partners and state.

1997 --- State announced surprise secret $10 million State/Company sweetheart contract to write a competing state NRDA, one day before federal partners issued Notice of Intent to Sue, for the federal NRDA.   (About $775,000 spent to write state NRDA.  Contract allowed companies to choose consultants to write state NRDA.)

1997 --- Fox River Group of paper companies formed as a lobbying block, and Fox River Coalition folded.

1998 --- Clean Water Action Council wrote a 16-page report, DNR Watch, which showed how political campaign contributions from the paper industry were driving the state's actions.  Specifically, the Council warned that the competing state NRDA promoted by Governor Thompson and Attorney General Doyle would undermine the federal NRDA legal case.

1999 --- State NRDA Plan Released (explained how NRDA would be written and structured, but gave no details.)

Nov. 2000 --- Surprise secret $7 Million Settlement between State and Fort James Corporation (now Georgia-Pacific)   No State NRDA Plan was ever released for public comment or public hearing.

Nov. 2000 --- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and co-trustees (State of Michigan, 3 Tribes, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) released the final Resource Compensation Determination Plan (RCDP), after issuing detailed damage reports over a period of 2 years.  They held 5 public hearings. (Green Bay, Appleton, Sturgeon Bay, Oshkosh and Escanaba)  Public testifiers generally supported the plan but felt the dollar estimates of damages were far too low and too compromised.

Dec. 2000 --- George W. Bush assumed the Presidency of the United States, drastically altering the federal government's approach to environmental matters.  Over the next few months, the federal agencies pulled back and let the State of Wisconsin take the lead on all Fox River matters. (...heaven help us...)

Jan. 2001 --- DNR refused to hold public hearing on the State and Georgia-Pacific settlement, so citizens organized their own public hearing.  Many testifiers criticized settlement harshly.

Spring 2001 --- The Wisconsin Legislature’s Legislative Audit Bureau conducted a preliminary audit and public hearing in Madison on the State and Georgia-Pacific settlement, citing numerous problems.   DNR Secretary Bazzell suspended the settlement indefinitely.

June 2001 --- The federal, state and tribal agencies (the Intergovernmental Partners) signed a surprise  $40 million Interim Agreement or partial NRDA settlement with Appleton Papers Inc. and NCR Corporation.  They refused to hold a public hearing, but took 30 days of comments.  It's still unclear how this money will be spent.  Half was for sediment cleanup and half for NRDA compensation projects. (see details)

July 2002 --- An amended Georgia-Pacific settlement was announced, with many of the same flaws found in the previous year’s proposal.

Aug. 2002 --- Clean Water Action Council filed Motion to Intervene in federal court to increase the size of the Georgia-Pacific settlement.  (see details.)

Sept. 2002 --- The agencies (the "Intergovernmental Partners") announce the final proposed NRDA "Restoration Plan" to guide them in overall spending of compensation dollars from all 7 of the responsible corporations.  They refused to hold a public hearing, but received significant numbers of detailed comment letters critical of the plan. (see comments)

Spring 2003 --- Legal briefing and meetings continue as part of Clean Water Action Council's federal case asking to intervene in the Georgia-Pacific settlement.   The federal Dept. of Justice admits in a brief to the Judge that the state/company competing NRDA has undercut the federal NRDA legal case, forcing them to settle for less with Georgia-Pacific.  This was predicted by Clean Water Action Council in 1998, but government officials let it happen anyway.

May, 2003 --- Judge rules against citizens' rights to intervene in the Georgia-Pacific settlement, but invites Clean Water Action Council to submit an Amicus Brief detailing reasons for rejecting the settlement. (see news release)  The governments will be allowed to submit a reply brief also, then the judge will rule on whether to accept the Georgia-Pacific settlement.

June, 2003 --- The first meeting of the Co-Trustee Council was held, to begin the process of determining final compensation projects under the NRDA.   The public portion of the event was a fiasco (see Infuriating Results: Report on the Meeting: Natural Resource Trustee Council)

Ongoing --- The agencies tell us they are continuing to meet and negotiate with the 7 companies, in efforts to settle the rest of the NRDA compensation cases.   Settlements may be announced at any time.  The judge may rule on the Georgia-Pacific settlement at any time.

For more Fox River PCB History, click here.

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