Baloney stories are just as hazardous as PCBs By Curt Andersen News-Chronicle Paper industry propaganda is back like a bad penny. They are repeating the mealy industry baloney regarding the PCB cleanup in the Fox River and Green Bay. Baloney story No. 1: "They didn't break the law." Yes, they did break the law. It is called the Common Law. It protects people from miscreant actions like pollution. Common Law is grounded in precedent, local tradition and reason, and has evolved over hundreds of years. It is never legal to poison your neighbor. Baloney story No. 2: "They shouldn't be punished." They are not being punished. Far from it. Punishment would involve jail terms and fines. The cleanup proponents ask for the repair of the wildlife habitat, which are so important for healthy bird and fish populations, and to hunters, anglers and commercial fishermen. Proponents ask for serious cleanup efforts, but those efforts have been compromised by political interference and extortion by paper companies with no moral compass to guide them. Real cleanup efforts would cost four times the settlement we got. Real cleanup efforts would not allow the dumping of sand and gravel over deposits of PCBs in the Fox River. The river belongs to all of us. To dump fill into the river is to steal what the paper mills have already ruined. The river should be cleaned up. Instead, we are getting a phony magic wand and a baloney sandwich. Baloney story No. 3: Over the years, the paper industry has said the PCBs are not dangerous. Two years later they told us they knew of the danger and stopped dumping the PCBs immediately. The history of PCBs shows that the hazards were already being studied in the mid-1800s, and more widely known by the 1930s. Since the industry is insured, the mills should only have to pay the deductible. The insurance industry is balking at paying for the cleanup. They were paid to warn the paper industry of the danger of various processes, including the use of PCBs, but perhaps they didn't do their jobs. In my own small business, insurance underwriters have warned me of potential problems. Were the insurance companies only telling the paper industry to sweep the floors? Baloney story No. 4: The paper industry had a cartoon made that showed how underwater dredging would cause the stirring-up of buried sediments. Not true. The Environmental Protection Agency then had a video made that showed how the snowblowerlike dredge pulled in all of the stirred-up sediment and pumped it into waiting barges. Baloney story No. 5: The paper industry told us that the cleanup would cause companies undue hardship in our area. Their Web site prospectus said the exact opposite by stating the cleanup would not affect their bottom line or dividends. Baloney story No. 6: The paper industry is still using the phrase "natural recovery." PCBs do not break down like other chemicals, hence the name "persistent toxins." "Natural recovery" really means the paper industry gets off the hook by buffaloing the public. The mills that polluted the Fox River and the bay have destroyed much of the potential for tourism here, destroyed a thriving commercial fishing industry, ruined a source of local food, and blighted the land along the river. The surgeon general warns that too much baloney can be hazardous to your health. Andersen is a lifelong resident of the Green Bay area and a Navy veteran. He owns a small business and is an adjunct instructor at NWTC. He is vice president of the Clean Water Action Council. His column runs Wednesdays. Contact him via e-mail at [email protected]