UPDATED Upriver into The Heart of Darkness. Trying to track down the Tinklenberg Group's taconite tailings marketing and logistics contract with NRRI.

UPDATED - WED JUNE 25, 2008 -- AN UPDATE REGARDING MISUNDERSTANDINGS IN THIS POST AND REGARDING NRRI AND ITS PUBLIC DATA ACT COMPLIANCE.

Here is the email I sent today, a half hour ago, forcing the issue as a public data disclosure matter, since NRRI is an agency of the state and subject to state law on disclosure and transparency [Sunshine is the best disinfectant].

Subject: Please Provide contact person ID for public data law compliance

[This message was also sent generically, via the contact us page on the NRRI website]

My email is ezaetsch@gmail.com

I need contact info, mailing address, phone number, and email, for whoever at NRRI is tasked with compliance with the Public Data Law; Minn. Stat. Ch. 13.

See statute online:

https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=13

Under that law, as an agency of the State of Minnesota, and please check with NRRI's lawyers if you doubt, you are obligated to comply and part of that compliance is designating an official for me or others in the public to contact with Public Data Disclosure requests. See; Minn. Stat. Sect. 13.05, Subd. 13.

I presume that University counsel, or the Attorney General would be who'd advise you. I wish to obtain copies of contract information between NRRI and a marketing and logistics contractor on taconite tailings use as aggregate in highway paving; see slide 39, this link:

http://www.nrri.umn.edu/egg/TACAGG/Presentations/...General.pdf

If you'd like, send me contact info for whoever is the top person there, and/or the lawyers, if there is no compliance official as yet designated.

But I do want prompt compliance with the law, and copies of the information I seek.

Thank you.

Eric Zaetsch

ezaetsch@gmail.com
6521 154th Lane NW
Ramsey, MN 55303
763-421-8823


cc:


Principle Investigator
– Donald Fosnacht, Ph.D., NRRI
– 218 218-720 720-4282
– dfosnach@nrri.umn.edu eduProject Coordinator
Project – Larry Zanko, NRRI
– 218 218-720 720-4274
– lzanko@nrri.umn.edu
Project budget and task reporting oversight
– Steve Hauck, NRRI
– 218 218-720 720-4273
– shauck@nrri.umn.edu eduUniversity accounting and contracting oversight
University – Denise Endicott, NRRI
– 218 218-720 720-4290
– dendicot@nrri.umn.edu

This thing was Feb. 2006, the slide presentation, and at Slide 39, big as life and twice as ugly, here it is [After Slide 35, "Task assignments and strategies for implementation," there is the tasking info of Slide 38, and especially, Slide 39]:




_______UPDATE________
Two update items:

[1] Thursday morning, March 20, 2008, I have the following reply:

from Nora Kubazewski hide details 7:09 am (1 minute ago)
to ezaetsch@gmail.com
cc
Larry Zanko ,
Steve Hauck ,
dfosnach@nrri.umn.edu,
Michael Lalich ,
Denise Endicott

date Mar 20, 2008 7:09 AM
subject RE: Please Provide contact person ID for public data law compliance
mailed-by nrri.umn.edu

Thank you for your inquiry. I have copied our geologists on your request and they will respond to you directly.

Nora

I sent Ms. Kubazewski this follow-up reply

from eric zaetsch
to Nora Kubazewski
date Mar 20, 2008 7:22 AM
subject Re: Please Provide contact person ID for public data law compliance
mailed-by gmail.com

Nora-
Thank you. I expect the inquiry will not end up lost, falling between chairs. There should be procedures, and, Nora, your contact information does not directly indicate you are a NRRI person. However, a Google yielded the fact that the "Northern Lights Technology Center" is a NRRI affiliate or subordinate organization. I presume you are then the contact person for disclosure according to the Public Data Law requirements. Referring this to the engineers may be a misunderstanding of my request. I am not in pursuit of technical reports. I am in pursuit of contract papers showing how Elwyn Tinklenberg and his business, Tinklenberg Group, is paid for its "logistics and marketing" services - and how much over time he and his firm have received. The matter is being published and this link [which I am in the process of updating today] might be helpful in firming up your understanding of the nature of my concerns:

http://zaetsch.blogspot.com/2008/03/upriver-into-heart-of-darkness-trying.html

Again, thank you for the prompt initial reply.

Eric

***

[2] In the interest of notice and directness, I also sent this email:

from eric zaetsch hide details 7:10 am (17 minutes ago)

to
el@tinklenberg08.com,
info@tinklenberg08.com

date Mar 20, 2008 7:10 AM
subject Voluntary disclosure of financial stake in promotion of taconite use as road aggregate
mailed-by gmail.com

Thurs. Mar. 20, 2008

To: Elwyn Tinklenberg, and/or his designate at his Congressional Campaign

Will you voluntarily release a complete set of your contract(s) with NRRI and/or others, personally or through Tinklenberg Group, disclosing to the public the amount of money you have attained over time for marketing and logistics services in promoting use of taconite tailings as paving aggregate on Minnesota roadways.

The question is clear. Follow the money. See what incentive, that way, exists which might make the position on taconite tailings safety from Elwyn Tinklenberg be what it is.

I recall from the Sunday, March 16, 2008, quite clearly Elwyn Tinklenberg saying that NRRI had "certified" use of taconite tailings in paving as safe, as a public health matter affecting the health of citizens of the state. The only qualifying statement made by Elwyn Tinklenberg was that tailings from eastern and western locations differed and one but not the other had been certified safe. Certified and certification were the actual words used. My understanding is the Zanko work has done no such thing and that the claim of such a certification is a falsehood. My understanding is that Larry Zanko holds a master's degree in geological engineering and has no medical training nor any epidemiological experience, nor any position with health authorities to make medical certifications.

If you care to explain, revise, or extend that contention you stated in Anoka last Sunday, I will publish your response, and any contract papers you willingly provide will be published. I presume the documents are in digital form and can be provided that way. My email address is a part of this mailing. If you would like a mailing address, please reply stating that, and one will be provided.

Thank you.

Eric Zaetsch

On that one, sent minutes ago, I await the prompt and responsive answer I trust Elwyn Tinklenberg is capable of giving.


***

________FURTHER UPDATE_________

Some interesting comments. I do not monitor traffic here, but blueman says he's seen some traffic. There are a good dozen or so sites I have looked at and can post more about, showing the issue is wholly open - is this a health hazard or not? Has it been used more widely than so far publicized or not is not as easy a question to pin down, given the first rate Ramsey engineer says it is neither specified or barred for use in Ramsey and he does not know if it's been used on the roads where I live or whether it's been delivered to the asphalt plant along the BNSF tracks within a mile of City Hall and the Ramsey Town Center, where dust would presumably be a factor. It is an unknown whether those private parties are using it or not - unknown to me, to Ramsey public works people having local police powers, and I expect MnDOT, if asked, could not say with certainty whether the piles are being worked down via use as aggregate, or not. If the federal DOT is concerned, as a blueman comment indicates, then, can they say if its staying in the Oberstar district until proven safe, or not?

Here's a thought. If the stuff gets used, and a safety determination is that its use was not a sound idea and a health risk is posed; are they going to go rip up the paving? Not likely. So, go figure where that leaves those living next to that paving.

The error now, with the jury out, is to err on the side of safety, not the side of spreading it where it will not be removed if the Tinklenberg advocacy is proven wrong.

And that last thing the Tinklenberg campaign put out - is it disingenuous to say, if the stuff is proven a hazard, we are sure to withdraw advocacy and expect NRRI to do so also? It seems disingenuous to me, given the risk threshold being real - and it cannot be put into Lake Superior, that it stay put where it is until the proof - the reasonable burden of proof is met - the other side, those wanting to use it prove there is no discernible or major risk. I saw something about a very limited sampling procedure, possibly, on the NRRI work so far as well as a charge that the lab chosen and used is a sweetheart lab of Big Steel. That I have read on the internet but cannot say one way or the other whether the possibility of testing bias, other than experimental error which is always possible without knowing the details of how sampling was done, by whom, whether rain-washed tailings atop or on the edge of a pile or pool of the stuff was taken, or whether deep sampling of what would or could end up shipped was sampled, etc., etc., all technical questions that would have to be publicly debated.

Here, to keep current, is the latest email from NRRI to me:

from Nora Kubazewski hide details 7:24 am (4 hours ago)
to eric zaetsch
cc
Larry Zanko ,
Steve Hauck ,
dfosnach@nrri.umn.edu,
Michael Lalich ,
Denise Endicott ,
June Kallestad

date Mar 20, 2008 7:24 AM
subject RE: Please Provide contact person ID for public data law compliance
mailed-by nrri.umn.edu

Thank you. You are correct that I am affiliated with NRRI. I am not the contact person you wish and the NRRI geologists who are working on this study will respond to you directly. They are the correct people to explain the relationship with Tinklenberg. We will be in touch!


Nora

Does anyone have a clue who the one unidentified email address belongs to:

dfosnach@nrri.umn.edu


****
__________THIRD UPDATE_______
[to be announced]