State Investigating Big Walker Donor
The sand mining company dumped 10 million gallons of sludge into Trempealeau River.
Trempealeau River. Photo by By Royalbroil (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The state is investigating the release of an estimated 10 million gallons of sludge into the Trempealeau River by a sand mining company whose owner is a large Republican Party contributor.
The company, Hi-Crush Proppants, of Houston, Tex., said it released the muddy water in a holding pond on Monday to free a bulldozer driver who had slipped into the pond. The water and bright orange sediment flowed into nearby farm fields and a tributary and into the river.
Hi-Crush co-founder Robert Rasmus and some of his employees have been generous contributors to GOP Gov. Scott Walker and the state Republican Party in recent years.
Between January 2012 and December 2017, Rasmus contributed $25,000 to Walker’s campaign. An additional $10,375 was contributed to Walker by three of Rasmus’s employees – Chief Operating Officer Jefferies Alston, of Amite, La.; Vice President Chad McEver, of Eau Claire, Wis.; and Shipping Manager Michael Franks, of Independence, Wis.
Rasmus also contributed $205,000 to the state Republican Party between September 2014 and last December.
In addition to the state contributions, Rasmus also contributed $100,000 in February 2015 to Our American Revival, which was one of two federal committees created to support Walker’s 2016 presidential bid.
Hi-Crush was fined $52,000 in July 2014 by the state of Wisconsin for operating two wells at its mine in Augusta without Department of Natural Resources approval.
Campaign Cash
-
Outside Groups Spent Record $28.8 Million on State Supreme Court Race
May 7th, 2023 by Erik Gunn
-
Top 20 Donors to State Political Parties
Apr 4th, 2023 by Peter Cameron and Hina Suzuki
-
$38 Million Spent on High Court Race
Mar 29th, 2023 by Erik Gunn
“released the muddy water in a holding pond on Monday to free a bulldozer driver who had slipped into the pond.”
Was it the bulldozer and the driver or just the driver. If it was just the driver could he have been “freed” by some other method?
Did anyone actually witness a person and or a machine in the holding pond?
Wisconsin is truly a backwards thinking corrupt state. Water is Wisconsin future and to have our corrupt governor Walker and the GOP destroy it, is very discerning.