Letter to the Governor from a small northern town...

Part 1: A letter sent to the Governor of Wisconsin on October 24, 2004...

(Please note: If you are from Minnesota, this is not intended to be a slap at your state in any way. I mean if I could send my trash out of state for cheap I probably would too.  I also know that Minnesota is in the forefront of environmental protection and community recycling.  This letter was aimed straight at Madison! Not St. Paul.)

Dear Governor,

It seems like once a year I have to write to your office, the DNR, and the rest of my former neighbors is Madison to remind everyone to use some common sense or better yet, do their job and help us protect our lakes and streams!

Last year, you tried to prevent our small community from trying to protect Shell Lake from flooding. Now, your administration and the DNR either directly or indirectly has sided with a huge well-known National polluter (BFI) to dump millions of tons (377,000 tons in '03 alone) of Minnesota's waste in our small community.

I do not understand how you could ignore our plea to help divert spring water from one of the cleanest lakes in Wisconsin for almost a year and deny aid, but you will allow 370,000 tons of medical, municipal and traces of toxic waste to be dumped in the same watershed??? We already have half a dozen families with tainted water.

How much money is BFI funneling into Madison anyway. The attitude down there has to change. Northern Wisconsin is not a vast frontier to be bought and sold and exploited for Dane County's financial gain. In case you all forget, there are people here who pay taxes and vote! Many of them still remember all the stalling, the speeches about no money (at the same time Bureaucrats were getting big contract concessions) and broken promises, while the lake took everything they had!! On the other hand, most don't stop and think about the $2.9 million (734,000 tons@$3.75)the STATE got in tipping fees from our landfill last year. (And you tried to tell us you didn't have money to help us in our time of need.)

In the current situation, two things need to happen.
1. BFI should be told that the only trash going in a Northwest Wisconsin landfill is Northwest Wisconsin trash. Shell Lake has already taken a million tons more than its share. You need to get on the phone to St. Paul and tell them to keep their trash at home, or we are going to start increasing the taxes on out-of-state property owners.
2. Everyone from your office on down (agencies and departments, too) should be forced to disclose special payments, permit fees and campaign contributions from BFI, Waste Management, Exxon, Georgia Pacific, and the other major polluters along with the amount of waste and pollution these companies dump in our state. There should be an accompanying report on how Madison has intentionally allowed out of state trash to be dumped in Wisconsin in exchange for cash!! Cash that the victim communities NEVER SEE!
This information should be released to the press and the press encouraged to place it page one, lead story.

I know that these things are not likely to happen, but at the very least, if the 1,400 people who live next to this Twin Cities' sludge pit say the current 4,000,000 tons of trash is enough, at least have the courage to say these people in Shell Lake have done their part, its time to stop dumping on them.

Respectfully,
Wendtsc
Wisconsin

Note: In 2002, all the recycling efforts in the state and the millions spent on programs and education saved 1.429 million tons of Wisconsin trash from entering our Landfills.

In 2003, the DNR, Governor, and Legislature accepted fees and favors to allow 1.481 million tons of OUT-OF-STATE trash to be dumped in our Landfills.

ADDITIONAL STATS AT:

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/wm/recycle/

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/wm/solid/landfill/2003Tonnage.htm

http://sarona.info/

Did this plea have any effect on the Governor or the environmental politics in Madison?
Find out in Part Two!