Re: apologies for bashed mail message

["Rebecca Leighton Katers" <cwac@execpc.com>]

  Mr. Mc Clintock wrote, disagreeing with the claim 
  that agencies advise polluters to use loopholes.  
  
  He said,   "The loopholes themselves, when they exist,
  are usually found by the consultant or head-guru of the industry,
  not the regulatory personnel. 
  If constrained by the law, the regulatory 
  personnel have few options...."
  
  When Granulation Technologies, Inc. in Green Bay failed 
  their air test by gross margins, and DNR proposed 
  simply to raise their limits --- DNR staff
  advised them to avoid serious permit 
  reviews and an Environmental Assessment by 
  pursuing a permit MODIFICATION instead of a 
  permit ALTERATION.     This fine legal point based 
  on questionable assumptions might have been 
  missed by GranTech if agency personnel hadn't 
  gone out of their way to alert them.   And DNR 
  staff made the choice to define the situation as 
  a modification.
  
  When we challenged them in court, DNR staff 
  became champions of GranTech and fought us every 
  step of the way when we tried to prove this new 
  permit was an  ALTERATION involving significant 
  equipment and process changes.   We wanted a full 
  Environmental Assessment, but DNR blocked us.
  
  As another example, at a public hearing last 
  week, when we testified for the closure of legal 
  loopholes, DNR staff denied that 
  mining wastes are exempt from Wisconsin's 
  Hazardous Waste Rules --- when in fact they are.
    
  They went out of their way to reassure the media 
  that we were wrong and mining wastes were "covered 
  under other rules" when they know those rules are 
  grossly inadequate and not equivalent.
  
  Even though the DNR staff people and others might 
  think they are basically nice people trapped in 
  a bad situation --- this doesn't explain such 
  serious gaps in ethical standards.   How can so 
  many 'nice' people deliberately mislead the 
  public?    Where is their sense of honor?
  
  
  Rebecca Leighton Katers
  Clean Water Action Council of N.E. Wisconsin
  2220 Deckner Avenue
  Green Bay, WI 54302
  Phone:  414-468-4243
  Fax:  414-468-1234
  E-mail:  cwac@execpc.com