Pollution
“I was not,” Dawson said. “But we were directed to do it. I did not see an ethical reason not to do it. But we were disturbed by the potential precedent it was setting.”
Koremenos said some comments Dawson made to a reporter should not have been shared and some were false and others were misleading. He said details on how the agency handled the case are confidential but noted the attorney general’s executive team sometimes provides input in a case.
“DOJ is proud of the resolution in this case and believes it was the best result for the protection of our environment and natural resources,” Koremenos said in an email
Said Dawson: “It’s an old case. It’s a dead case. I don’t see any reason why the public shouldn’t know about it.”
Schimel is a Republican and former district attorney from Waukesha County. Elected in 2014, he has run the Justice Department since January 2015.
During his tenure, penalties in environmental cases involving individuals and companies have dropped to the lowest level since at least 1994, according to agency records.
3M is one of 20 environmental cases prosecuted by the Justice Department in 2016. Those cases resulted in judgments of $449,253 — the lowest in 22 years, agency records show.
The next lowest year was in 2015, when judgments totaled $734,127.
By comparison, judgments averaged $3.7 million a year during predecessor Republican J.B. Van Hollen’s eight years from 2007 to 2014.
Judgments under Democrat Peg Lautenschlager, who was attorney general between 2003 and 2006, averaged $4.3 million a year.
Records also show the average was $5.2 million a year between 1994 and 2002 under then-Attorney General Jim Doyle, a Democrat.
“It’s hard to believe that currently there is such a dramatic drop-off in forfeitures and other payments — it’s hard to comprehend,” Meyer said.
He has tracked environmental enforcement since Republican Gov. Scott Walker took office in 2011.
The issue has been closely watched in the conservation community, but Walker has said that regulators are protecting the environment and working better with those they regulate to avoid problems before they become more serious.
In an email, Koremenos said the attitude of businesses “toward the environment, environmental controls, self-reporting and stewardship have changed dramatically over the past decades. It would be highly unusual for DOJ to continue the exact same enforcement strategy as it did 10, 15 or 20 years ago.”
3M, a Fortune 500 company, had revenue from worldwide operations of $30.1 billion in 2016.
3M settled with the Justice Department under Van Hollen in another case in Prairie du Chien in 2010 when the company paid $150,000 in forfeitures and penalties for violations of its air permit between 2004 and 2009.
The company also agreed to spend $200,000 for two environmental projects to purchase equipment that reduced carbon dioxide emissions and saved more than 6 million gallons of water a year.
In the most recent 3M case, documents show bag houses failed to operate at times over 26 days between June 2, 2014, and June 9, 2015, at a downtown Wausau plant and failed to operate periodically during three days between Sept. 4, 2014, and Aug. 1, 2015, at a quarry outside of town. The facilities employ about 150 people, according to the company.
A bag house is an air pollution device that acts as a filter and traps particulates before the pollutants are released into the air.
The Wausau plant makes roofing granules. 3M bought it in 1929 and said the plant is the company’s oldest operating manufacturing facility in the world.
Koremenos said 3M reported the problems.
Documents show that in one case 3M reported an incident, but six days after the fact, instead of the required next business day.
During this time, 1,442 pounds of particulates were emitted.
While nonoperating bag houses violated the law, Koremenos said 75% of the time when the
equipment was not working, it was for periods of less than 5 minutes.
“One violation was only for 19 seconds,” he said. “Overall, the actual impact on the environment was minimal.”
3M spokeswoman Fanna Haile-Selassie said most of the emissions stayed in buildings, and company analysis showed pollution did not leave the property.
Under the settlement, 3M must upgrade electrical and communications systems that were factors in malfunctioning pollution-control equipment as well as make improvements in an environmental managements system it has had in place since 2010.
Meyer, the former DNR secretary, said the improvements the company was required to make were essentially investments in its own operations.
“This is just the cost of doing business,” he said. “This is what any of their competitors have to do. Why should they be given credit for this?
The failure to require a forfeiture sends the wrong message, he said.
“It means there is less deterrence for other companies that may not care as much about meeting environmental regulations,” he said.
“They’re basically giving 3M a pass for all of the violations they had.”
GEORGE MEYER, FORMER STATE DNR SECRETARY