Governor Purdue Dumps in Jackson Lake
 On October 3, when Jackson Lake residents Fonnette and Robert
Harris saw someone dredging in the lake with a track hoe, they
took their pontoon boat across the lake to investigate.
According to the Harris’s they confronted the man standing on
the dock next to the dredging and asked him if he had permits to be dredging
in Jackson Lake, the man replied, "Ma'am, I don't know nothing about
any permits."
When the Harris’s asked if Governor Perdue
knew they were doing this work, the gentleman politely replied, “ma’am
I am the Governor."
Mrs Harris said “Governor don’t
you know you are violating many environmental regulations? “
The Governor replied “I don’t know nothing about any environmental
regulations.”
At that time Ms Harris said “ and you are the Governor of GA
?”
The Altamaha Riverkeeper James Holland reported the incidence to
the federal Environmental Protection Agency because the incidence
requires a Federal investigation.
Holland says “It is illegal to dredge in Waters of the U.S.
without first obtaining at minimum a Federal Clean Water Act Section
404 Permit. It
is illegal to discharge a pollutant (dredge spoil) into the Waters
of the U.S. without first obtaining a CWA Section 404 Permit to discharge
pollutants (dredge spoil) into Waters of the U.S.
Holland says “the amount of dredged spoil discharged illegally
is not in question at this time; what is in question is why Governor
Perdue did not obtain any and all permits prior to beginning of his dredging
in Waters of the U.S. The Governor saying he did not know a permit
was needed is not an acceptable excuse for the Chief Law Enforcement
Officer for the State of Georgia. It
is common knowledge, every county commission chairman in this state
knows that you cannot dredge in waters of the U.S. without prior obtaining
Federal Permits, much
less discharge the dredge spoil back into the same body of water
it came from.”
ARK talked to Molly Davis with the Environmental Protection Agency
about the incident. According to Davis, Georgia Power is the permit
holder for Jackson Lake and ultimately responsible for all actions
on the lake. Davis says GA Power investigated and estimated that five
cubic yards of dirt was dredged at the Governor’s dock and discharged
into the lake and that corrective
action will be required of the Governor. She said, after Thanksgiving
when Georgia Power lowers the lake levels, the Governor will have to
properly remove and dispose of the approximate 5 cubic yards of dirt
to a proper confined upland disposal site.
According to the Altamaha Riverkeeper this action (dredging) by Governor
Perdue is no different from any other entity in the State of Georgia, “We
expect everyone to follow the law. “Holland says.
ARK asked Mrs. Harris how she felt knowing the governor would have
to take corrective action and she said “I will believe it when
I see it.”
Governor’s dredging in Jackson Lake questioned
by some
Nov. 07, 2009
By S. Heather Duncan | Macon Telegraph
 Gov. Sonny Perdue recently dredged soil from Lake
Jackson without a permit, dumping it into the lake and angering
some neighbors and environmental advocates.
Georgia Power officials
said the activity at Perdue’s vacation home
was not a violation, although a Georgia Power permit should have
been obtained first. They said Perdue stopped digging as soon as
he was informed that a permit was needed.
State and federal environmental regulations generally forbid property
owners from dumping silt in a waterway or even allowing erosion
off their property. The Ocmulgee River flows out of Lake Jackson and
through Macon.
Perdue’s communications director, Bert Brantley, said
Perdue will obtain a proper permit in the future if he needs to
do work at the lake, but he has no immediate plans to do so. Perdue’s
boat slip, like many at the lake after heavy rains this fall, had
become clogged with mud.
Special to The Telegraph A man dredges soil from
Lake
Jackson on the property of Gov. Sonny Perdue, left.
“The amount (dredged) was so small I don’t
think there was any thought that there would be any environmental
damage,” Brantley
said. “With the investment he’s made there, he loves the
lake and only wants what’s best for it.”
Neighbor Fonnette
Harris, who lives directly across from Perdue on the lake, reported
the dredging to Georgia Power when she saw it happening Oct. 3.
She said she and her husband rode to Perdue’s dock in their
pontoon boat to take pictures of a trackhoe sitting in the lake
and scooping dirt out of Perdue’s boat slip, then dumping it further
into the lake.
According to Harris, she and her husband asked a
man standing on the dock if he had a permit and whether he knew
there were environmental regulations about dredging, and he said
no.
“We asked, ‘Does the governor know you’re doing
this on his property?’ and he said, ‘I am the governor,’” Harris
said.
All lake residents are provided the Georgia Power Shoreline
Management Guidelines, which list activities that require a permit,
said Harris, whose husband’s family has leased their lakefront
land for more than 60 years.
After seeing pictures of the dredging, Altamaha
Riverkeeper James Holland said they appear to depict a Clean Water
Act violation. Holland’s
environmental advocacy group keeps tabs on the health of the watershed
that drains to the Altamaha, including Lake Jackson.
But the amount
of dredging may have been small enough that no laws were broken.
Lynn Wallace, a Georgia Power spokeswoman, said the company estimates
that Perdue dredged about 5 cubic yards of dirt.
Such activity could
fall under a nationwide permit that allows dredging of less than
10 cubic yards without notifying anyone first, said David Crosby,
deputy regulatory division chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Savannah
district. Otherwise, he said the circumstances described would
constitute a Clean Water Act violation.
Georgia Power has a permit
from the corps that gives it the authority to permit dredging within
certain limits. Among them: No more than 500 cubic yards can be
moved, and the silt dug out must be deposited in a confined upland
area, Crosby said. He said the corps generally doesn’t want
to see heavy equipment in a waterway, either, although that’s not
explicitly forbidden.
But Wallace said Georgia Power prefers to
see dredging equipment in the lake rather than in the shoreline
buffer zone.
Crosby said Georgia Power has the authority to make someone remove
silt dumped in the lake, but there is no agreement requiring Georgia
Power to report a violation to the corps.
Holland said Perdue’s
actions, in his opinion, were an abuse of power and bad for the
environment. “There
are two different enforcements in Georgia, one for some and one
for others,” Holland
said, noting that Perdue appoints the chief of the state Environmental
Protection Division.
Kevin Chambers, the EPD communications director,
said no complaints seem to have been filed or investigations conducted
into the dredging at Perdue’s property.
Wallace said Georgia Power
handled the situation as it would for any property owner, adding
that dredging permits are almost always approved.
Perdue has not
applied for a permit since the incident, Wallace said, “but
of course if he wants to dredge, we’ll issue him a permit,” she
said.
However, Harris contended that this treatment is different
from what her family has received.
“Just a few months ago, Georgia
Power told us under no circumstances can you put equipment within
25 feet” of the shoreline, she said.
Harris said when she recently
erected a temporary cover over her boat slip without written permission,
Georgia Power sent her a letter threatening to revoke her family’s
lease and destroy the structures.
Butts County tax assessment records
show Perdue bought his house and an adjacent lot at 196 Andrea
Circle, assessed at almost $465,000 altogether, in 2007.
Photos below did not
run with the Macon telegraph story and were taken by: Fonette
Harris |
