FC: Environmental group complains about Interior website offline

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[My recollection of the news reports, including what we've seen on
Politech, is that the judge ordered the sites offline; Norton had little
choice in the matter. Seems like an overreaction from this group, or an
excuse to complain. --Declan]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2002 14:55:31 -0600
From: Ben Masel <bmasel () tds net>
Subject: Bush Administration Blocks Public Access to Government's Fox River
     Website

Bush Admin. Blocks Access to River and Bay Website

> From Clean Water Action Council of N E Wisconsin

Thursday, January 31, 2002

GREEN BAY, WI -- For immediate release January 31, 2002

Bush Admin. Blocks Access to River and Bay Website

Local Citizens Forced to Provide Information on Private Website

(Green Bay, WI) Due to actions by the Bush Administration, the public
can no longer access key information on the $176 to $333 million Fox
River and Green Bay restoration and compensation plan completed last
year by the Clinton Administration.

The Clean Water Action Council, a local non-profit citizen group, has
responded by putting extensive reports by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service on their own website: http://www.FoxRiverWatch.com/nrda

For two months, these reports (several thousand pages worth) have been
inaccessible during the critical public comment period on the Fox River
cleanup plan. This is inexcusable, stated Rebecca Katers, Executive
Director of the Council. Its a major loss of detailed information needed
to evaluate our PCB pollution problem.

In early December, Gale Norton, President Bush's Secretary of the U.S.
Dept of Interior, chose to respond more broadly than necessary to a
judge's order in a federal lawsuit regarding online security issues and
Interiors management of Native American trust funds online.

Norton ordered the entire Department to go offline, shutting down
virtually ALL the Department's websites (except for the U.S. Geological
Survey sites) and preventing employees from using e-mail or the Internet
indefinitely.

Now, nearly two months later, they are STILL offline with no resolution
in sight. This has made agency work more inefficient, costly (for
printing, postage, phone and faxes) and disconnected from valuable
information sources online.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is one of Interior's many sub-units;
therefore, their Fox River and Green Bay website has been inaccessible
to the public for two months. (Other Interior agencies affected include
the

Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Mines,
Bureau of Reclamation, and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement.)

Our Fox River restoration plan has nothing to do with Native American
trust funds. It makes no sense to shut down the Services Fox River site,
unless the true motivation is to prevent public access to the
information or cripple the effectiveness of the Service, added Katers.
Gale Norton is preventing access, using an unrelated lawsuit as an
excuse.

The Fox River documents are also important to "sister rivers" such as
the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, the Hudson River in New York, and the
Housatonic River in Massachusetts. These are all PCB contaminated rivers
where NRDA compensation plans are being written. Citizens, local
governments, other agencies, and even industries along these rivers
should have access to the Services Fox River reports and website, to
compare notes and learn what they should expect in their areas. Other
PCB poisoned areas, such as Anniston, Alabama, would find the reports
useful.

Were getting many calls for information, when individuals should be able
to get this information from the government agencies set up for this
purpose. Taxpayers paid millions of dollars for the preparation of these
Service reports, but they've been prevented from releasing the results
online. Were not getting the information we all paid for, stated Katers.

Secy. Norton has restored the online campsite reservation system for the
National Parks Service, but apparently doesn't place an equal value on
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's websites.

Norton wants happy campers, but doesnt care about restoring our poisoned
river and bay, concluded Katers.

This website obstruction doesn't bode well for the implementation of the
Fox River and Green Bay NRDA compensation plan, which should begin this
year

(2002). Other environmental actions of the Bush Administration add to
our concerns. Norton recently prevented professionals within the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service from commenting on wetland rules proposed by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers resulting in severely weakened wetland
protections, and EPA law enforcement actions have dropped drastically
since Bushs election.

Wetland protection and law enforcement are central to a successful NRDA
restoration and compensation plan, explained Katers. It appears these
are not priorities of the Bush Administration and our plan could be in
jeopardy.

The following reports are now available on
http://www.FoxRiverWatch.com/nrda

.. The Fox River and Green Bay Restoration and Compensation Determination

Plan (RCDP) . The Bird Injury Report . The Fish Injury Report . The PCB
Pathway Determination . The Fish Consumption Advisories Report . The
Recreational Fishing Damage Report . The Surface Water Injury Report

Nationwide news media coverage of the Internet Access Problem at the
Dept. of Interior is also included on the Fox River Watch website, along
with articles concerning other key Bush Administration environmental
actions.

For more information, call Rebecca Katers, 920-437-7304 (work),
920-468-4243 (home)

For more information, contact Alice McCombs Webmaster Clean Water Action

Council of N E Wisconsin 920-437-7304 Webmaster () FoxRiverWatch com Web
site: http://www.FoxRiverWatch.com/index.html








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