Paper Valley
The Fight for the Fox River Cleanup
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5.0 • 1개의 평가
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- US$26.99
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- US$26.99
출판사 설명
The compelling true story of a hard-fought environmental win, set in motion by a tenacious government scientist and an unrelenting journalist—resulting in the polluting companies paying for the $1 billion, 20-year cleanup.
Booklist raves, Paper Valley "is a compelling human-interest tale on par with Erin Brockovich and Jonathan Harr'sA Civil Action."
A 2024 selection by the Sierra Club, Wisconsin Chapter Book Club
Winner, Midwest Book Award!
When government scientist David Allen arrived at his new jobsite in the 1990s, the Fox River near Wisconsin's Green Bay was dominated by hulking paper mills, noxious industrial odors, and widespread ecological damage. Confronted by his lack of resources to force the politically powerful "Paper Valley" polluters to fix their mess, Allen proceeds against all bureaucratic odds in building a $1 billion case against the paper company bosses. Two small but vital players, Allen along with journalist Susan Campbell were relentless in bringing the case to the public at the time. They do so again in this book: an act of radical transparency to uncover the intrigue that nearly blocked the cleanup behind the scenes at US Fish and Wildlife, Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. In a rare and major environmental win, the Fox River became the site of the largest polychlorinated biphenyls cleanup in history, paid for by the paper companies rather than taxpayers, to the tune of $1.3 billion, and completed in 2020.
This true story of struggle, perseverance, and success inspires hope for environmentalists who strive to restore natural landscapes. The detailed account given in this book is meant to inspire and offer practical knowledge and solutions for those fighting similar opponents of environmental cleanup and restoration. Allen and Campbell eloquently outline the problematic bureaucracy involved in environmental cleanup efforts and reveal tactics to compel corporate entities who would dodge accountability for decades worth of contamination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this brisk account, investigative journalist Campbell (Beyond Earth Day) and wildlife biologist Allen revisit their efforts in the 1990s to uncover the damage done to Wisconsin's waterways by the region's paper producers, who from the 1950s to the '70s had dumped polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a component of the "carbonless paper" used to make receipts, into the state's Fox River. By the early 1990s, PCBs had been identified as a carcinogen and were known to accumulate in the bodies of wildlife, but Campbell, writing for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, reported on even more controversial findings: although PCBs had been banned in the '70s, the pollution left in the sediments of the Fox River was slowly spreading into Green Bay and wreaking more environmental havoc. Allen, then working at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and Campbell's main government source, assembled the evidence that led to the $1.3 billion cleanup of the contaminated waterway, which was paid for by the polluters and not completed until 2020, when the EPA hailed it as the largest PCB cleanup in history. This is an insightful look into how regulatory agencies and news media can act in concert to grapple with corrupt corporate power.
