Each year WEI honors the courage and integrity of a researcher and scholar who takes great risks on what they know and what they believe is the public's right to know. This year Paul Wotzka was unanimously voted by the WEI Board of Directors as WEI's 2008 Scholar Under Fire.
Watch for Paul's Upcoming WEI Scholar-Under-Fire Lecture Series at various locations in Minnesota: "Nitrates, Atrazin, and Corn-Based Ethanol: What's in Your Water?"
Paul Wotzka is a scientist who leveled a whistleblower lawsuit against the state regarding his research on Atrazine, a common pesticide used by farmers in Minnesota. As a hydrologist, Paul had logged 16 years monitoring water quality for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture before moving to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency last year. During the 2007 legislative session, he received a call from Representative Ken Tschumper, a dairy farmer who advocates banning Atrazine from use in Minnesota. He had read an article in a DNR magazine where Paul was quoted as saying we have observed some increasing concentrations of Atrazine in trout streams in southeastern Minnesota. Tschumper, the author of several bills aimed at tightening regulation of Atrazine, asked Wotzka to appear at a hearing planned for the next day and sent a request to testify to his supervisors which was denied. Wotzka persisted, provided the testimony, and was put on investigatory leave and six weeks later fired from his job. While the details of this firing are under review, the timing of the action and the nature of Paul's important research on Atrazine in Minnesota waterways have given WEI board members good reason to award Paul with our 2008 Scholar Under Fire Award. We hope to create more public knowledge about Paul's research and more information about the perils of Atrazine on human health and our rural communities. Paul Wotzka joins a former WEI Scholar Under Fire, Dr. Tyrone Hayes, whose work on Atrazine remains vitally important for the State of Minnesota and farm land and waterways everywhere.
Please join us in recognizing Paul Wotzka's courage and commitment to the public's right to know.