Communications between Gogebic Taconite and DNR employees

Hello Mr. Schneider:

The Department has received your Open Records request of July 21, 2014 for, "A copy of all communications between Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources employees and employees of Gogebic Taconite - or anyone communicating on their behalf - regarding a proposed iron ore mine in the Penokee Range." This is a very broad request, incorporating approximately 45 staff members, and will take a substantial amount of time to complete.

The open records laws allow the Department to recover the "actual, necessary and direct costs" of responding to an open records request. Our estimate for the potential cost of your request at this point is approximately $1,725.00. The Department does have the discretion to grant fee waiver requests based upon the public interest. However, in determining the public interest, the Department has to balance the fiscal impact of providing the records at no cost to the requestor with the public interest in recovering these costs, and factor in the benefit to the public in doing so. In this case, the Department has decided not to grant a waiver.

One way to help reduce the cost of an open records request is to narrow the scope of your request. The Department is requesting that at a minimum you include a date range in your request. Other ways to narrow a request can include: limiting to specific staff members correspondence, more specific subjects, etc. Looking at our web page for the Gogebic Taconite potential mining project may be helpful in narrowing your request http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/mines/gogebic.html. On this site you will find many communications between DNR staff and Gogebic Taconite, including documents on the bulk sample plan, stormwater permits, exploration licenses, pre-application and other information. You may also subscribe to receive email updates when information is posted to the site.

The Department will require pre-billing for this request. Once we receive your narrowed request we will send you an invoice with the updated amount. Once we receive payment we will begin processing your request. If the final cost of the request is less than the amount billed, a refund will be issued.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions. If you are not able to reach me, please contact Ms. Katie Patten at (608) 266-2177.

Sincerely,

We are committed to service excellence.
Visit our survey at http://dnr.wi.gov/customersurvey to evaluate how I did.

Sue
Suzanne Bangert
Deputy Administrator - Air, Waste and Remediation & Redevelopment
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Phone: (608) 266-0014
Cell Phone: (608) 575-4016
Fax: (608) 267-0560
suzanne.bangert@wisconsin.gov

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Hello Mr. Schneider:

While providing a date range is a good start to narrowing your request, it does not decrease the number of staff working on the request. Therefore, it does not significantly decrease the estimated cost. In addition, adding the “Bad River” component greatly expands your request, and would likely increase your pre-bill estimate. The DNR has correspondence with the Bad River Tribe on more topics than just the proposed Gogebic Taconite Mine, and therefore all communications with the words “Bad River” “Bad River Chippewa” or “ Chippewa” would encompass a large volume of records. We assume that your request for communications with the words “Bad River” “Bad River Chippewa” or “ Chippewa” is specific to the proposed Gogebic Taconite Mine. Please let us know if that is incorrect.

The Department continues to deny your request for a fee waiver. However, narrowing your request further may decrease your bill. Some suggestions on narrowing your request include: requesting communication of specific DNR staff, more specific topics such as bulk sampling, or further shortening the time period. Please keep in mind that since this is a large project, incorporating a large number of staff, that even after narrowing it is unlikely that the request will have no associated cost.

We are aware that keeping costs down is a concern. We have responded to a different open records request that included, among other things, a request for written communications between the DNR and the Bad River Band or any other Indian Nation from March 11, 2013 to March 19, 2014, relating to exploration, bulk sampling or the mining project proposed by Gogebic Taconite. If you are interested we could make those records available to you at no charge.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions. If you are not able to reach me, please contact Ms. Katie Patten at (608) 266-2177.

Sincerely,

We are committed to service excellence.
Visit our survey at http://dnr.wi.gov/customersurvey to evaluate how I did.

Sue
Suzanne Bangert
Deputy Administrator – Air, Waste and Remediation & Redevelopment
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Phone: (608) 266-0014
Cell Phone: (608) 575-4016
Fax: (608) 267-0560
suzanne.bangert@wisconsin.gov

 dnr.wi.gov
    

Hello Mr. Schneider:

It appears that your updated request has been sufficiently narrowed, and will not require a fee. We will proceed with your request, and will let you know when it is ready. Please contact me with any questions you may have.

Sincerely:

We are committed to service excellence.
Visit our survey at http://dnr.wi.gov/customersurvey to evaluate how I did.

Katie Patten
Paralegal - Bureau of Legal Services
Air, Waste, Remediation & Redevelopment Division
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Phone: (608) 266-2177
Kathleen.Patten@wisconsin.gov

[cid:image001.gif@01CFBBB3.59D69950]<http://dnr.wi.gov/> dnr.wi.gov<http://dnr.wi.gov/>
[cid:image002.gif@01CFBBB3.59D69950]<http://facebook.com/WIDNR> [cid:image003.gif@01CFBBB3.59D69950] <https://twitter.com/WDNR> [cid:image004.gif@01CFBBB3.59D69950] <http://www.flickr.com/photos/widnr/> [cid:image005.gif@01CFBBB3.59D69950] <http://www.youtube.com/user/WIDNRTV> [cid:image006.gif@01CFBBB3.59D69950] <http://dnr.wi.gov/rss/>

Hello Mr. Schneider:

We have completed your open records request. Attached are directions on how to access your records. Please contact me with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

We are committed to service excellence.
Visit our survey at http://dnr.wi.gov/customersurvey to evaluate how I did.

Katie Patten
Paralegal - Bureau of Legal Services
Air, Waste, Remediation & Redevelopment Division
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Phone: (608) 266-2177
Kathleen.Patten@wisconsin.gov

[cid:image001.gif@01CFC850.A978F850]<http://dnr.wi.gov/> dnr.wi.gov<http://dnr.wi.gov/>
[cid:image002.gif@01CFC850.A978F850]<http://facebook.com/WIDNR> [cid:image003.gif@01CFC850.A978F850] <https://twitter.com/WDNR> [cid:image004.gif@01CFC850.A978F850] <http://www.flickr.com/photos/widnr/> [cid:image005.gif@01CFC850.A978F850] <http://www.youtube.com/user/WIDNRTV> [cid:image006.gif@01CFC850.A978F850] <http://dnr.wi.gov/rss/>

Hello Mr. Schneider:

We discovered a typo on the instructions sent to you. Under #4 the Records Fileshare Library number should be 4 not 2 as was sent to you. Sorry for any inconvenience.

We are committed to service excellence.
Visit our survey at http://dnr.wi.gov/customersurvey to evaluate how I did.

Jane Washburn
Phone: 608/267-7558
Jane.washburn@wisconsin.gov