Newspaper Page Text
►
r
k
AMD MOT ONLY THAT--WHEN TH£
MEDIA R£v£Al STATE SECRETS
IN TH£ nA*£ Of SO-CALLED
‘OBJECTIVITY
--TOUR RED STATE SPEX will
JWW TOU WHA’ Th£T R£ REAM
THINKING.'
AMO that's only tm£ BEGINNING'
TOO WONT BELIEVE WHAT TH£
WORLD LOOKS LIK£--Wh£N YOU R£
THIS MMIIM W*RL»
by TOM TOMORROW
CertainTeed
Permit Almost There
A public hearing—probably the final one—on
CertainTeed Corporation's application for an air
quality permit necessary for a planned expan
sion at its Athens plant is scheduled for Monday,
Mar. 6, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the ACC
Library. At the hearing, the public will have its
last chance, most likely, to submit comments to
the Georgia Environmental Protection Division
(EPD) regarding the increases in allowed emis
sions that will be possible under the new permit.
The permit will allow maximum emissions of par
ticulate matter at more than double CertainTeed's
current rates, as well as increases in emissions of
phenol, methanol, formaldehyde and other com
pounds. The hearing will not be a question-and-
answer session; EPD held
one of those last July, the
most recent in a series of
hearings and Q&A sessions
regarding the CertainTeed
plant expansion. This hear
ing is intended to give a
last opportunity for citizens to make comments
for EPD staff to review as they prepare the permit
for final app r oval.
John Yntema of EPD's Georgia Air Protection
Branch explains that the process of hearings
and public sessions has taken much longer than
normal in the case of this particular application
by CertainTeed, in part because CertainTeed with
drew its original permit application last year-
after considerable work had already been done by
EPD technicians—in order to ask for even greater
increases in pollutants than it did initially. "It's
not unprecedented," Yntema says, "but for some
one to withdraw an application and re-submit
halfway through definitely complicates things."
All of the hearings and sessions have generated
much interest in Athens since the original sub
mittal; Yntema says, "it is a big deal to permit a
large source in the Athens area."
Much of the concern generated about
CertainTeed's plans has come from the group
Clean Air Athens (CAA), whose members have
been able to turn the question of CertainTeed's
expansion into a forum for debate about the ac
countability of local and state officials regarding
environmental health issues. Some CAA members
are largely disappointed about the fundamen
tal ways in which EPD's air quality permitting
process works—public comment mechanisms
included. CAA's Bill Sheehan, for instance, says
that "EPD is merely executing weak rules of a
tragically failed system." For Sheehan, the cur
rent regulatory process based on "risk assess
ment"—which starts with questions of how much
environmental degradation is allowable—fails
to protect citizens; a process based on what's
known as the “Precautionary Principle"—starting
with questions of how little degradation is neces
sary—would do much more.
And local children's
environmental health ad
vocate Jill McElheney says
800 signatures have been
collected "from the com
munity at-large" protest
ing CertainTeed's increas
es. "How many voices does it take to keep our
air safe and healthy for future generations?" she
asks. McElheney has also pushed for "speciation
tests" that would give more detailed information
on what makes up the particulate matter coming
out of CertainTeed's smokestacks. The materials
of concern are tiny shards of glass (CertainTeed
makes fiberglass). Yntema explains that finding
those through speciation tests has turned out
to be no simple task—the filter pads used for
those tests are themselves made of fiberglass.
CertainTeed has, he says, worked further on
that question, but has not provided any answers
about it to EPD. "It's a reasonable question,"
Yntema says. "We would like to know the answer,
too; we don't know that we have the authority to
hold up a permit because of that answer."
Meanwhile. Drew Page, President of
the Athens-Clarke County (ACC) Economic
“How many voices does it take
to keep our air safe and healthy
for future generations?"
--ACCORDING TO PUBLISHED RE
PORTS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
HAS BEEN SPYING ON AMERICAN
CITIZENS WITHOUT PROPER OVER
SIGHT*
WE'LL HAVE MORE AFTER
THESE MESSAGES!
Z SURE HOPE THIS HELPS THE
TERRORISTS WHO SEEK TO ERAD
ICATE OUR VERY WAY Of LlfE!
OH BOY, DO Z EVER HATE OUR
WAY of LtfE!
> QUESTION ABOUT IT-
M OBJECT tvELT pro
The drawn-out permitting process to allow more emissions from CertainTeed's smokestacks is nearing a close, though it’s still
not clear whether the company will even try to expand here.
Development Foundation, points out that Athens
is still in competition with the city of Sherman,
TX, for the CertainTeed expansion, so the project
isn't even a sure bet. "The company still has not
made a decision," he says.
In related news, board members and staff of
both the ACC Economic Development Authority
(EDA) and the ACC Industrial Development
Authority (IDA) are planning a public meeting
this month (not yet scheduled at press time)
with the ACC Mayor and Commission. The pur
pose of the session is to improve communication
and understanding among members of all three
groups about their roles—and the degree of their
authority and accountability—regarding indus
trial expansion in Athens. CAA has begun the lo
cally unprecedented task of scrutinizing the com
plicated system of bond financing and tax abate
ments used to enable industrial development,
and its members are pleased that a conversation
between Commissioner Elton Dodson (who serves
on the IDA) and Tal DuVall (Secretary of the EDA)
has brought about the planned meeting. "I'm
hoping to use it as part of an educational pro
cess for all three bodies," DuVall says. Drew Page
thinks ACC Commissioners "may have more au
thority than they realize" on these issues. DuVall
says, "A lot of people think the two authorities
have authority based on the name"—but the IDA
and EDA serve more as "a conduit for financing,"
he says, and not all power rests with them.
Ben Emanuel ben@flagpole com
MACORTS Update
Getting Across the River?
A local road-planning agency has agreed to
build bike lanes along College Station Road after
Mayor Hejdi Davison complained last summer
that bike and pedestrian projects were being ig
nored in favor of roads. Despite some grumbling,
members of the multi-county agency MACORTS
(Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional
Transportation Study) voted then to add one bike
or pedestrian project to its list, and at a Feb. 22
meeting, the College Station project was chosen.
The project has not been scheduled—even
as to year—but it is now on track for eventual
funding. A separate project will widen the road's
bridges over the North Oconee River to accom
modate bicycle lanes by 2011. Many bicycle
advocates have seen College Station road as a
logical route for Eastside commuters to get to
UGA, and members of the MACORTS technical
committee, who selected the project, were not as
skeptical as some on the full committee were last
year. Both BikeAthens and ACC Environmental
Coordinator Dick Field had advocated the choice
of College Station Road among other projects.
The other two proposals considered were adding
bike lanes to Lexington Road, or three-laning
North Avenue near the bypass and adding bike
lanes there.
The MACORTS committee makes recommenda
tions for state-funded transportation projects,
and the group is formalizing a process of public
input at its meetings. Although MACORTS meet
ings are listed on the ACC website calendar at
www.athensclarkecounty.com, they are rarely
well-attended by the public. A long-standing
requirement for public input is now included
in each meeting's agenda, according to ACC
Transportation Planner Sherry Moore.
John Huie jphuie@speedfadory.net
Bird Flu
Swans, Chickens, and the Trnth
More worrisome news about the lethal H5N1
strain of avian influenza was reported recently
in major news outlets. Due to the great Siberian
chill spreading across Russia and Ukraine. Mute
Swans were driven from their usual wintering
grounds along the Black Sea. Dead swans with
the virus were found initially in Greece. Italy and
Germany. Then, in the next few days, the virus
was found in Mute Swans in Austria, Denmark,
Slovenia and Croatia.
People around the world are concerned about
such findings; one hears worried conversations
in this country about the dangers of bird flu
. and how it spreads. Some ask whether migra
tory birds should be killed in order to help
control the virus. Dr. David Stallknecht of the
Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study
at UGA responds to such discussions this way: "I
hate hearing this called 'bird flu.' This 'disease' is
generally presented as something brand-new, but
in fact there is a lot known about these viruses.
This is especially true with regard to the natural
history of these viruses in wildlife species. This
information may be helpful in maintaining a
reasonable perspective on how we react to and
prevent this kind of problem. People have talked
about doing some really silly things related to
controlling this virus in wild birds."
Stallknecht, a researcher in wildlife diseases,
points out the need to understand how these
viruses are naturally maintained and transmitted
in wild bird populations, and how it is human
activities—not the activities of wild birds—that
create the kind of problems we're hearing about
with the bird flu. He will discuss this issue in de
tail at the monthly meeting of the Oconee Rivers
Audubon Society at Sandy Creek Nature Center on
Thursday, Mar. 2 at 7 p.m. in the ENSAT building.
6 FLAGPOLE.COM-MARCH 1,2006
BEN EMANUEL