Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 7:34 PM
To: Bau
Subject: SPECIAL LETTER TO WISC DNR SEC. STEPP FROM DROST
BROTHERS-JULY 15, 2013
Attached is a letter written by Jim and John Drost to the WDNR Secretary,
Cathy Stepp. The Drosts have not yet received a response to this
letter.
John and Jim have asked that the letter be made public. It is
written in regard to the pollution of public waterways and the handling of
spills into those waterways by frack sand mining operations.
Please read
it and share with others widely. If you have questions, please contact either
Jim or John directly (phone numbers are in the attachment).
Pat Popple
715-723-6398
http://www.ccc-wis.com/
Dear WDNR Secretary Cathy
Stepp:
We appreciate that you have
finally allowed your field agents to issue a “Notice of
Violation” to sand mining
companies that have been polluting Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin
We will confine our
discussion here to Great Northern Sands, LLC (GNS), since we are well informed
about said company. We are aware that GNS in the Town of Dovre
(The concept that the
spring-melt and heavy rains of this past spring have been the cause of all
these so called “accidental discharges” is ludicrous. Many of these so called
“leaks” occurred last fall when there was virtually no rain.) We have
documented several of these discharges, but what is worse, we are aware that
GNS has used the high water from the spring melt and voluminous amounts of rain
to date to camouflage and dilute their waste water discharges. (We have water samples taken from the creek
where clay and silica silt have flocculated and settled to the bottom of the
glass container.) We suspect that other companies have done the same.
It has come to our attention
that there has been an “Enforcement Conference” to discuss the violations with
GNS before proceeding further. Given that WDNR discussions with GNS have been
on going for some time and that we asked last January that GNS correct their
problems in the spring before they were allowed to start up their wet-plant, it
seems preposterous that GNS has been given yet another chance to plead their
case before they are made to correct the problem. This discharge problem has
been going on for 8 or 9 months now and obviously GNS has known that they were
and are polluting Beaver Creek and the McKeesey Marsh. (About half of the Marsh
is a State Wild Life Refuge) It is long past the time to shut them down and
engineer proper physical alterations to their waste water system. Already there
has been considerable damage done to Beaver Creek, it is a game-fish spawning
area for the Chetek Chain of Lakes; the Chetek Chain of Lakes is a significant
tourist trade area which will eventually lose jobs and trouble tourist
businesses. While GNS fumbles around to solve a problem that should not have
existed, the company continues to operate the wash plant, destroying more of
McKeesey Marsh each day. During Dovre Township
While we understand that it
is common practice to hold closed meetings with the company on these matters,
it does not give those who live and own property along these surface waters any
input. These citizens have had their “riparian rights” trampled upon for nearly
a year now, and yet they get no input. Given the WDNR’s big push for more
“transparency,” it seems to us that those affected by this pollution should
have some say with respect to corrective measures taken. In addition, grieved
parties are finding it more and more difficult to obtain information from the
WDNR that they are entitled to receive.
The “Freedom of Information Act” guaranties access to all such public
information.
If the WDNR really wants to
become more transparent, then the WDNR is going to have to start doing its job
and rebuild our trust. The WDNR’s actions over the last two years are pathetic,
if not scandalous. We realize that the State lawmakers and the “Natural
Resources Board” have a lot to do with the how the WDNR functions, and if they
are responsible for the WDNR’s feeble performance, then so be it; let the chips
fall where they belong. In general, the
WDNR will need to improve its performance.
It can rebuild the trust of Wisconsin
Finally, we can say this in
no other way than that the WDNR (and the State Government) is as culpable as
the sand companies in the disastrous destruction we see around the State of Wisconsin
Sincerely yours,
John Drost James Drost
715-835-5093 651-426-2779
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