[CPEO-MEF] REUSE, NATURAL RESOURCES: Newport Chemical Depot (IN) prairie

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Newport and the charade of public input

by Steven Higgs
Bloomington Alternative (IN)
September 27, 2011

While brainstorming with editors at NUVO for the Sept. 28 cover story  
on the Newport prairie controversy, I told them I love covering small- 
town power struggles because public officials inevitably shoot from  
the hip. They seldom display the political savvy of, say, a deputy  
director at a major state agency. By the time I had finished my  
reporting, the point was proven, in spades. Ditto the argument that  
citizen input into our democratic process has become little more than  
a sham.

Jack Fenoglio, for example, is president of the Newport Chemical  
Depot Reuse Authority and a lifelong member of the Izaak Walton  
League, an environmental advocacy group whose National Director Clara  
Walters lives in Clinton. She has organized national support for  
preserving a 336-acre black-soil prairie restoration on the Newport  
site. When I asked Fenoglio to square his opposition to the  
preservation with that of the organization, he minced no words.

"The prairie issue really started with one man who kind of led the  
project when he was working for Mason and Hanger," the retired  
metallurgical engineer said. "And he has got everybody else on the  
bandwagon to one degree more or less. But I think a lot of the rank  
and file members of all these organizations that he has brought to  
the table probably wouldn't recognize prairie grass if they saw it."

...

For the entire article, see
http://bloomingtonalternative.com/articles/2011/09/27/10776

See also
http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/newport-indiana-prairies-last-best- 
chance/Content?oid=2354511

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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