Badger Blogger Snags DNR Illegally Dumping Waste
August 5th, 2008
Bruce at BadgerBlogger has broken a heck of a story.
Several weeks ago, BadgerBlogger was sent a photograph of a worker emptying the waste by-product from a maintenance machine into one of the storm sewers located on the access road into Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin, just off of Harbor Drive, and steps away from Lake Michigan. The storm sewer shown in the photograph is just adjacent to the entrance to Discovery World’s underground parking garage.
An investigative chain-of-events ensued, with e-mails being circulated among high-ranking members of city and county government, an offshoot of BadgerBlogger’s inquiries. Various county supervisors and Milwaukee County Parks officials set out to answer the question: Who is this mystery employee, what is this machine he’s operating, and why is he emptying its waste directly into a city storm sewer?
At the same time, through industry experts, BadgerBlogger confirmed that this past June, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) purchased a Tennant model M20 ride-on floor scrubber for its recently developed Lakeshore State Park, just south of Discovery World. The machine, a staple in many manufacturing facilities, was purchased for the sole purpose of cleaning goose feces off the walkways in the area in and around the state park.
BadgerBlogger confirmed that the DNR maintains an office for the state park within the Discovery World complex, and furthermore had struck a deal with the museum to allow the DNR to store the machine in a space in the Discovery World parking garage, in exchange for the DNR using the machine to clean the parking garage floor on an “as needed” basis, as a courtesy to the museum.
Meanwhile, back in county government, the e-mails continued to circulate; one by one, county officials sought to dispel the possibility that the person in the photo was a county parks employee. Then, last Friday, BadgerBlogger obtained an e-mail sent to County Supervisor Gerry Broderick (who represents the area around Discovery World at the county level) by Discovery World President and CEO Joel Brennan. In the e-mail, Brennan (among others) in writing identifies the person in the photo as a DNR employee.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Yet another egregious example of government “do as I say, not as I do.” Just imagine if some poor private sector slob - you know, the kind of folks who provide jobs and produce things - had been caught doing this? Three times? I’m suuuuuuuuure regulators would have been veeeeeeeeeeery understanding - not.