Environmental groups today called upon state legislators to restore the Office of the Public Intervenor in testimony before the State Senate.  The Senate’s Environment Committee will  hold a hearing at 1 pm in Madison on Senate Bill 8 which would restore the Office.  In 1995, Governor Thompson’s state Budget Bill eliminated the tiny office housing two attorneys in the state’s Justice Department.

"The Public Intervenor was an effective watchdog that protected the public and our state’s natural resources from bad proposals and government action or even inaction," said Rebecca Katers, of the Green Bay-based Clean Water Action Council.  "Thousands of citizens and even many legislators consulted the Public Intervenor’s Office after it was established in 1967 by Republican Governor Warren Knowles," added Katers.  "Many bad ideas never even saw the light of day because the Intervenors legal and technical assistance demonstrated the weakness of the ideas."

The attorneys working as Public Intervenors had the ability to sue industry and even state  agencies to protect Wisconsin’s natural resources.  "It’s important to realize," said Keith Reopelle for Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade in Madison, "that they rarely went to court over resource issues.  Instead, they acted as an early warning system alerting agencies like the DNR and businesses of potential problems related to their activities.  But it was their ability to sue that usually prevented unwise resource decisions."

The environmental groups point to the recent Kidney Island sludge case in Green Bay and Exxon’s Crandon’s mining proposal as examples of the need for the Public Intervenor.  Two weeks after the office was abolished, the DNR reissued a permit for the Kidney Island sludge disposal site in Green Bay.  The permit had been successfully fought in court by the Intervenors Office in 1988.  Citizen opposition to the plan again stopped the permit, but only after great expense to the citizens involved with the effort.

"We think northern Wisconsin is at risk because of the threat posed by mining and, in particular, Exxon’s Crandon project," said Jim Wise, a member of ECCOLA in Tomahawk. "Small grassroots groups don’t have the resources to bird dog the DNR and make sure they have the willpower to stand up to Exxon.  The Public Intervenor was our balance against powerful interests."

One of the last activities the Public Intervenors were involved with before the Office’s termination was an investigation of Exxon’s groundwater model data and the impact of the mining proposal.  The work stopped with the elimination of the office.

"If we need another example of why we need the return of the Public Intervenor, look at the recent decline in DNR enforcement activities," said Will Fantle, a Northern Thunder member in Eau Claire.  "The DNR now calls polluters ‘clients’ and ‘customers.’  This attitude may help explain the documented drop in cases the agency is referring to the Department of Justice for enforcement of state environmental laws."

"We need the watchdog," said Katers.  "Critical decisions face the use of our state’s natural resources.  What we do today will affect Wisconsin’s land, water, and wildlife for generations to come."