Letter to the Governor from a small northern town...Part 2

So what was the response from the Governor's Office?
I got the typical "we'll look into it" that I have come to expect from any office run by James Doyle. Of course, words are just words and actions are always going to draw the headlines.

Since that time, several state lawmakers (to their credit) have taken on the issue of Wisconsin being the midwest's landfill. Rep. Spencer Black has led the charge on raising the tipping fee (the amount garbage trucks pay to dump their garbage.) The fee is now closer to what other states charge and despite what BFI and Waste Management said about the increase being a pointless tax increase that will only harm Wisconsin residents, it seems to have slowed the flow of trash in some parts of the state. 2004 was the "top of the trash heap" in terms of out of state trash. The state is also bringing in an additional $50 million dollars a year to spend on local community recycling programs. So, is this a victory? Well, lets look at the town of Sorona and you can decide.

At the time the letter was sent, the village of Sarona and Washburn county were being pressured by BFI, one of the world's largest trash dumpers, to allow them to double the size of their Lakes Area Landfill. This after they had promised in return for their COnditional use permit that the landfill would not be expanded. When local residents resisted, BFI sought the assistance of Madison and the DNR in clearing the way and eliminating any environmental or legal tool that the local community might be able to use to block the expansion. Since BFI is an international company and landfills are regulated at the state level through policy controlled by political appointees in the Department of Natural Resources, the effect was similar to Walmart, Inc. versus Mayberry, USA. The result was a huge increase in the size of the landfill from a remaining capacity of 1,047,584 cubic yards to 8,951,474 cubic yards!* That's enough trash to fill 5 HHH Metrodomes!

Or think of it this way...
"If every man woman and child in the United States was standing side by side in field and we dumped the trash on them, it would bury them all up to their waist!"

Needless to say, that's more trash than any town of 380 residents should ever be forced to deal with. How is it that even after the increase in tipping fees (garbage taxes) Sarona was forced to accept the second largest landfill expansion in Wisconsin?

MADISON POLITICS!

Madison promised that the increase in tipping fee would reduce the flow of out of state trash and while it has stopped the doubling of the tonnage every couple of years it hasn't stop the flow by any means. It has however allowed the large cities in the southern part of the state to swap local funding of their recycling programs with state funding generated by allowing out of staters to continue to dump trash on the poorer communities up north. (If you check out the DNR' s own Landfill Lists you will see that in fact one small northern town continues to bare the brut of this policy.)

One can argue that of the five largest landfills, four are located in the southeastern prat of the state. These landfills do belong there as everyone should be required within reason to deal with their own garbage. There is even an arguable point to be made that since Kenosha and the other counties in the far southeast corner gain huge benefits from being located in between Chicago and Milwaukee that they should share the burden of the metro areas' trash disposal.

However, how can one argue that 380 Saronans, who live 105 miles from the Twin CIties and share virtually no economic, social, or ploitical ties whatsoever should be responsible for storing over 10% of all the trash produced in the entire state of Minnesota. But since the money raised from tipping is given to the cities with the biggest recycling programs, these few hundred people are destined to continue to pay for Dane and Milwaukee county residents to enjoy no-fee recycling programs that allow them to enjoy their "best places to live status."

Of course help is even less likely to come from across the border. MSP Metropolitans also enjoy "best places to live" status and one of the reasons is that they continue to export their trash. I had originally taken a stance of not wanting to offend our neighbors fromacross the St. Croix, but after researching for this article, I found out some disturbing secrets about our so-called "environmentalist" neighbers.

Minnesota only has 16 public landfills for all the solid waste produced by Minnesota households. They must be huge, right? Wrong, the size of these few landfills are grossly inadequate to hold all of Minnesota's trash.

But I see all sorts of landfills and dumps when I drive through Minnesota, it not possible that there are only 16 active public landfills.

The reality is that Minnesota brags about having the largest landfill and dump closure program in the country! The figures from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency indicates that they have shut down 112 facilities while ramping up trash exports to neighboring states at an alarming rate. At the same time as people in small Wisconsin towns have hundreds of Minnesota garbage trucks rolling past their farms, they watch Twin Cities TV stations trumpet about Minnesotans leading the nation in recycling and preservation and restoration of the environment.

I think its time for Wisconsin to say no more. Let the trash pile up at the river. Tell the federal government that its time to stiop treating trash like televisions and giving exporters protection under the ICC!

Of course this is all a pipe dream because as long as one capitol continues to sellout the rest of us so the other capitol can throw its trash in the neighbors yard, the people of northwest Wisconsin will just have to keep plugung their nose.

http://proteus.pca.state.mn.us/publications/mnenvironment/summer2005/landfills.html

The following are links to the Landfill usage and capacity reports from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources website. You may observe that the imported trash levels subsided between 2005 and 2006, however its's still very obvious that the tonnage for Washburn county is still way out of line!

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/wm/solid/landfill/tonnagerpts/2006tonnage.xls

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/wm/solid/landfill/tonnagerpts/2005Tonnage.xls

Letter to the Governor from a small northern town...Images of Sarona

A very small village with a very big neighbor...
The only way in for the garbage...
the mountain continues to grow...
Who thinks this wetland is being protected?

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!