January 23, 2006
By S. Heather Duncan
TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER
Erosion prevention has become a hot potato in Middle Georgia:
The state tosses it to local governments, some local officials
deny that it was ever their job, and people who want someone
to keep dirt from filling up creeks are left scratching their
heads.
"The whole system has failed," said James Holland, the
Altamaha riverkeeper. "You see everywhere mud going into
streams, and you can't get anything done about it without a
lawyer. And that's not right."
Environmental regulators consider erosion one of the major
sources of water pollution in Georgia. Developers and builders
are required to prevent erosion from leaving construction
sites. When it washes into waterways, it can smother fish and
plant
life and sometimes decrease property values.
More than 50 Middle Georgia rivers and streams are too full
of dirt to support fishing, according to the state Environmental
Protection Division.
The EPD polices erosion problems, except when local governments
ask to take over the job. Many of them do. These "local
issuing authorities" receive half the $80-per-acre land-disturbance
fee that developers pay the state.
But a recent complaint about a Cochran construction site
led Holland, and eventually the EPD, to realize that no one
was
enforcing erosion laws there. And it's unknown how widespread
the problem might be.
"I'm worried it's going on statewide," said Jennifer Pennington,
an attorney for the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest. "Dirt
is the No. 1 pollutant in Georgia for a reason: We have rampant
construction, and it's going on unchecked." THE COCHRAN
DILEMMA
Holland called the EPD at the end of December with a complaint
about Choate Construction, which is working on the expansion
of Middle Georgia College in Cochran.
Holland took photos showing a contractor using a backhoe
to scoop muddy water from a sediment catch pond onto a neighbor's
property, where it eventually flowed to Jordan Creek.
The EPD told Holland to direct his complaint to the city
of Cochran, where officials said they do not monitor erosion
-
and never have.
"I have no idea where they got the idea we were doing
it," Cochran
Mayor Gene Towns said after consulting with his staff. "They
are absolutely wrong."
EPD records, however, show that former Cochran Mayor Charles
Killebrew was notified Jan. 2, 2003, that Cochran had been
certified as a local issuing authority.
Bleckley County officials also say they do not enforce erosion
laws, although EPD records indicate that it is the county's
job.
Ed Phillips, executive vice president of the Home Builders
Association of Georgia, expressed disgust with such local
authorities.
"That's like a policeman saying, 'Oh gee! I didn't know
there was a speed limit here!' " he said. He pointed out
that if locals are charging land disturbance fees, they ought
to
be using that money for erosion monitoring, not padding the
general fund.
Pennington, whose law firm is working with the Altamaha Riverkeeper,
said she is most concerned that the EPD doesn't seem to know
what's going on.
"There is no process for regular review of local issuing
authorities," said
Kevin Chambers, EPD communications manager. "If someone
just stops performing that duty, we'd have no way of knowing
that."
In 2004, cities and counties that wanted to continue erosion
enforcement had to send the EPD an updated erosion ordinance,
said Jan Sammons, EPD erosion unit coordinator. But the EPD
has not checked those that didn't, to find out if laws are
being enforced.
"We follow up kind of piecemeal, just when we get to
it," Sammons
said.
Bleckley County submitted its revised ordinance to the state
in June 2004, Sammons said.
But Bleckley County Commissioner Mike Polsky said the county
never intended to take over erosion enforcement.
"It may have been done inadvertently," he said, calling
the situation a communication breakdown between Bleckley and
the EPD.
About 21 local issuing authorities gave up responsibility
for erosion monitoring, some by basically quitting without
notifying
the EPD, Sammons said. In Middle Georgia, the town of Helena
in Telfair County and the counties of Taylor and Montgomery
surrendered their erosion responsibilities.
Although Sammons acknowledged it's possible more local issuing
authorities aren't doing their jobs, she doubts the problem
is widespread because construction contractors notify the
EPD when the process breaks down.
But this relies on whistleblowing from those who stand to
profit from lax enforcement.
Local issuing authorities that fall down on the job are supposed
to be stripped of erosion responsibilities. Although the
Macon EPD raised the possibility of doing this to Jones, Monroe
and
Bibb counties last year after various erosion problems there
continued, no action was taken.
Sammons said only one local government in Georgia, the city
of Helen, ever lost its erosion authority this way.
POLICING
DIRT
Meanwhile, weeks passed with no one checking out the Middle
Georgia College construction site.
Finally EPD environmental specialist Johnny Henson visited
it, finding minor problems, which Choate officials began
correcting immediately, said Todd Bethune, manager of the Macon/Columbus
EPD office. There was no confirmed damage to a stream, Bethune
said.
Choate officials did not return repeated phone calls last
week.
The day after Henson's visit, Towns notified the EPD that
Cochran did not want to be a local issuing authority, Chambers
said.
"We don't have the expertise and it's too costly," Towns
told The Telegraph. Polsky said Bleckley County doesn't have
the expertise, either.
The law requires the EPD to ensure the local government has
qualified enforcement personnel before delegating the authority.
"We've run into cases across the state where (local
issuing authorities) say they're incapable of enforcing the
law," Pennington
said. "They say they don't have enough money, manpower
or time. EPD says the same thing."
Bethune said the Macon EPD received about seven complaints
about erosion in Bleckley County or Cochran since 2001, investigating
all but one in 2004 that fell victim to computer tracking
problems.
But although the Macon EPD office handled many erosion complaints
itself - even when there was a local issuing authority -
a Jan. 10 EPD directive says this practice should end. Citing
EPD's limited manpower and resources, the policy indicates
erosion complaints must be referred to local issuing authorities
first.
Bethune, who took over the Macon office in the fall, said
it used to be inconsistent in deciding when to investigate
erosion
problems itself.
"There was no rhyme or reason to it," he said.
Last summer Macon's EPD officials said three-quarters of
their investigations involved erosion problems, half of which
were
in Jones County. The site they described as worst in Middle
Georgia was Monroe County's River Forest subdivision, where
mud was polluting the Little Towaliga River.
The volume of erosion problems in the Macon area and especially
Columbus led the state to announce in August that the Middle
Georgia field office eventually would be moved to Columbus.
Erosion complaints continue to pour in. Holland alone has
filed four others this month about construction sites in Houston,
Pulaski and Twiggs counties, describing Bonaire as having
some
of the worst problems.
He said the EPD policy of leaving enforcement to locals won't
work.
"Locals, in general, simply are not going to enforce
the permit," Holland
said. "These people are controlled by the developers.
They're not going to go against their friends." "If they're not going to enforce the law, developers
and builders are going to push it as far as they can," acknowledged
Phillips with the home builders association. But he said his
organization wants more uniform enforcement statewide because
it levels the playing field and makes construction costs more
predictable.
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