1 Comment
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Dear GLSCI Board Member, May 27, 2019
I am writing to inform you that the City of Sheboygan’s Mayor Vandersteen (GLSCI Board member) and Common Council have acted in direct opposition to the GLSCI’s (Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative) mission statement unless your mission is in reality to poison and divert millions of gallons of water from Lake Michigan and the adjacent Niagara Aquifer. Their action has been at the behest of Herbert Kohler Jr..
Kohler’s sponsoring of your annual meeting in Sheboygan Wisconsin is a blatant attempt to influence your organization to support the construction of their environmentally destructive $500 a game luxury golf course on environmentally sensitive and significant land Kohler owns abutting Lake Michigan surrounded by one of Wisconsin’s most popular State Park’s in which Mr. Kohler is also currently attempting to sequester five acres at the entrance to the park, flatten environmentally sensitive sand dunes and construct a 22 thousand square foot “maintenance” building and use the land as an entrance to his land locked parcel.
It is a textbook case of influence peddling. Just as Kohlers $42 million dollar donation to former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s election campaign gained them wetland fill permits from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The issuance of these permits were recently overturned by a Wisconsin Administrative Law Judge who stated that the standards for issuing these permits had not been met. This decision is currently being appealed by Kohler..
As the population of the earth has doubled (in my lifetime) natural resources such as potable water are becoming more scarce and valuable. “Water is the new oil.” is a statement which is becoming more accurate with each passing day.
The majority of the human body is made up of water and this frivolous and foolish use of water by Kohler is obscene and unacceptable.
If your organization intends to retain any form of legitimacy and reject corruption I would ask that you not only distance yourself from Herbert Kohler Jr. and his attempt to divert 60 to 80 million gallons of Lake Michigan Water per year and poison them with millions of pounds herbicides (whether through direct access or by way of high capacity wells reaching into the Lake Michigan adjacent Niagara Aquifer which they have already drilled with no less than five “test wells” which go down at least 500 feet deep) but issue an official statement that Mr. Kohlers proposed golf course is not a wise or sustainably use of Lake Michigan’s water resources.
More information about protecting these water resources can be found at the website of the Friends of The Black River Forest: http://friendsblackriverforest.org
Sincerely,
Jim Maurer
Lifelong Resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
“A Great State on a Great Lake”
“Water for Life, Not Leisure”
