August
29, 2002
Fighting for the Fox River and the Public’s Fair Compensation
The United States and the State of Wisconsin submitted for Federal Court approval a proposed settlement with Georgia Pacific (Fort James Company) for all of the natural resource damages the multinational corporation has caused to the Fox River and Green Bay ecosystem. The company is responsible for contaminating the environment with PCBs. The parties settled the public’s claims for pennies on the dollar: $8.5 million plus land purchases of an unspecified dollar amount - when the corporation could owe the public up to $75 million dollars in damages.
On August 2, 2002, MEA filed a Motion to Intervene in the case in order to increase the settlement amount and ensure that the public is fully and fairly compensated for suffering generations of PCB contamination. MEA is representing Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin, a group with members who have stopped eating fish from Green Bay and stopped allowing their children to swim in the area because of the PCB pollution.
Below
is a picture of the press conference announcing the legal action –
Fox River in background.
MEA Helps Sierra Club Release New Report on Slaughterhouses
On August 13, 2002, MEA, Concerned Citizens of Adams County and Adams County Tourism, Inc. helped release a Sierra Club report on health, safety, and environmental violations by slaughterhouses in Wisconsin and across the country. To read the report, go to http://www.sierraclub.org/factoryfarms/rapsheets/.
To listen to a WPR story about the Concerned Citizens of Adams County’s fight against the Quality Beef slaughterhouse, go to http://www.wpr.org/news/audio_archives/0208.cfm and scroll to 8/14/02 – "Adams County Residents Don't Want Slaughterhouse"
To read an August 14, 2002, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about the report and the local fight, go to http://www.jsonline.com/news/State/aug02/66245.asp
Below
is attorney Andrew Hanson with the Concerned Citizens of Adams County,
a grassroots group MEA helped organize to fight a proposed mega slaughterhouse
in the Central Sands of Wisconsin.
MEA Moves to Environmentally-Sustainable Office
This
month MEA moved into an office space that reflects our organizational
commitment to sustainability. We are utilizing low-tech solar solutions
to reduce our energy usage and a variety of reclaimed and sustainable
materials, such as a maple floor from a 1915 school house, no VOC emission
paint, and desk and table tops made from soy and sunflowers.
Come to our Open House to celebrate with us on October 30, 2002,
4 – 6 p.m.
Below
are solar water tubes that are designed to help us reduce electricity
usage for heating and cooling.
For more information, contact Melissa K. Scanlan at mscanlan@midwestadvocates.org.