One person’s “progress” can sometimes be a disaster for taxpayers.  If agencies had been allowed to proceed with decisions prevented by the intervenor, taxpayers and industries often could have faced more costly lawsuits and clean-up actions.  The intervenors worked to reach consensus on regulations so problems wouldn't grow into major liabilities for the state and the business community. 

More often than not, the mere existence of the Intervenors prevented questionable agency actions.  On the rare occasion when suits were filed (usually less than once a year), the Intervenors were generally successful in upholding state law and putting the spotlight on agencies who were making illegal decisions.  This watchdog role helps keep the government honest.

For example, two weeks after the Intervenors Office was abolished, the DNR reissued a permit to expand a toxic sludge dump (called Kidney Island, or Renard Isle) in the waters of Green Bay --- which the Intervenors had blocked in court in1988 (because the permit could cause a violation of Wisconsin’s water quality standards.) 

In 1995, because the Intervenors were gone, private citizens in Green Bay were forced to research the old Intervenors case, follow their example, and spend nearly $50,000 of their own private money in order to protect public rights and enforce state law, by fighting and blocking the reissued permit in court again.  The state wasted an enormous amount of taxpayer money fighting a losing battle which they wouldn’t have dared try if the Intervenors still existed.  Local citizens had to face the enormous burden of fighting against their own government because local public officials refused to hold public hearings or listen to citizen concerns.

As another example, in 1982, the Intervenors helped convince the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny a permit to the City of Green Bay to construct a railspur line through a valuable wetland, by showing that expense was unnecessary and that a better alternate route was available on existing railbed nearby.  The alternate route saved the local government $400,000.