Late Friday (12-10-99) I received a letter and a sample survey from an organization named PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) indicating that they will be sending a survey to all department employees this week.  Many of you also recieved an e-mail from Eric Wingerter announcing the survey and explaining what PEER is.  Similar surveys have been taken in 20 federal and state environmental and natural resources agencies across the country.

While I personally believe that the survey has been crafted with a negative bias that will skew its data, I strongly encourage each and every one of you to fill out the survey and return it to PEER.  As you fill it out, however, please do so based on YOUR direct knowledge and experience, not on speculation or rumor.

Since a major focus of the survey is environmental enforcement, let me share with you the full picture of where we are in enforcing environmental laws:

Four years ago, when the department was in the height of reorganizaiton, the number of cases of environmental violations that we referred to the Attorney General's office for prosecution declined. The decline was was primarily due to a large number of vacant positions and the turmoil of reorganization.  Newspapers carried many stories that were unfair and demoralizing to our dedicated enforcement and environmental staff.  

Since that time, my office, the Division of Enforcement and the Department Leadership Team have been placing a very strong emphasis on environmental enforcement, and as a result, the number of cases referred to the Attorney General has returned to pre-reorganization levels.  In addition, the number of conservaton and water regulation enforcement cases, which are handled by local district attorneys, has remained strong throughout this entire period of time.

During my term as secretary, I have never failed to refer to the Attorney General's office any of the environmental enforcement cases set to my office by staff.  And recent cases referred have included some of the largest and politically most well-connected companies in the state.

To see the department's willingness to protect the environment against proposals from strong business interests, you need look no further than the last state budget.  In that budget the Legislature authorized two large companies to fill in a total of 18 acres of wetlands.  Those companies went to the Legislature because department field staff, strongly supported by my office, refused to grant permits despite very strong legislative political pressure.  The ability to stand our ground in defense of the environment is the norm in this agency -- not the exception.  

Finally, it is ironic that the PEER letter and survey arrived at the exact time that I had a delegation of DNR staff, including my Executive Assistant Franc Fennessy, in St. Paul, Minnesota, demanding that the Army Corps of Engineers improve their poor enforcement of their wetland regulations and better support us in protecting the environment.

Finally -- at my strong direction -- department environmental staff have been reporting, for each environmental program, the level of compliance of facilities based on inspections and other monitoring techniques.  Those reports indicate that, depending on environmental program, 94 to 98 per cent of reviewed facilities do not have significant environmental violations.

Armed with this information and your personal experience in how we are doing in managing and protecting Wisconsin's natural resources and environment, I encourage you to fill out the PEER survey when you receive it.  Based on the facts, are we collectively making a positive difference for the environment?  Is Wisconsin a better place because of our work?  Because of your work?

Some employees may not have received this e-mail or are not on e-mail.  Because of this, I am asking all supervisors to see that this message is distributed to everyone in their work units.

Thank you,

George 

George E. Meyer
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(608) 266-2121