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Stallknecht wilt describe how the H5N1 virus
may have spread among wild birds, but when it
passed into domestic flocks of poultry, it mu
tated into a more lethal form and now has spread
back to wild birds. “It's really a viral monster cre
ated by us humans. The way we keep such dense
numbers of poultry in unnatural settings, it al
lows the virus to change very rapidly," he says.
For more information, check out www.scwds.org.
Liz Conroy mikeliz@mybluelighl.com
Bridge Questions
Getting Across the Creek
The Westchester Drive bridge over Hunnicutt
Creek—off Mitchell Bridge Road near Ben Burton
Park—is "rapidly deteriorating" and cannot be
repaired; according to ACC government docu
ments. County staffers would prefer to replace
the old bridge with three parallel culverts—large
square cement pipes for the stream to flow
through—but two local environmental groups
say that building a new bridge would be better
for the health of the stream.
A bridge would allow easier wildlife move
ment along the creek and would maintain its
banks, representatives of Athens Grow Green
Coalition and the Upper Oconee Watershed
Network told commissioners at their January
and February meetings. But in a memo, county
staffers (including Environmental Coordinator
Dick Field) recommend going with the culverts.
Installing culverts would cause less traffic
disruption—closing Westchester Drive for two
months instead of four, and with less disruption
along Mitchell Bridge Road—and might cost
$10,000 less than a bridge.
The report acknowledges some of the con
ceals raised by environmentalists, but disagrees
with others, and concludes that the culverts
"would provide sufficient environmental benefits
given the permanently degraded nature of this
stream." Hunnicutt Creek is not unusually dirty,
Field says, but is considered "degraded" because
of relatively high fecal contamination. That could
come from dog or animal waste that washes
into the stream, or from leaking sewers, he says.
Projects built along degraded streams "are sup
posed to make (the water quality] better," Field
says, although replacing a bridge doesn’t techni
cally fall under those requirements.
But ACC Commissioners have postponed the
decision twice, asking for more exact cost fig
ures on the two alternatives. Getting those cost
estimates will cost money, too, and to get fairly
exact construction costs, both projects would
have to be partially designed by engineers. That,
Deputy Manager Bob Snipes told commissioners
in a follow-up memo, will cost about $24,000 if
requested. At their Mar. 7 voting meeting, com
missioners will decide how to proceed.
John Huie iphuie@speedfadorynet
Capitol Impact
Natural Gas and Yon
It was just a decade ago that the Georgia
General Assembly approved what now looks like
one of the biggest business blunders in the
state's history. During the 1996 and 1997 legisla
tive sessions, a state senator who was not par
ticularly well-known to the voting public took a
request from Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) and worked
hard for the adoption of complex legislation
that deregulated Georgia's natural gas industry.
That senator, an agribusinessman from Houston
County named Sonny Perdue, convinced his legis
lative colleagues to vote unanimously for the de
regulation bill by promising them it would ben
efit consumers all over the state. When Gov. Zell
Miller signed the gas deregulation bill in April
1997, Perdue proclaimed: "I think it will bear the
fruit of lower prices and better services."
It didn't take long for that statement to
prove spectacularly wrong. Within three years
after that bill was signed, the Public Service
Commission was inundated with complaints from
consumers whose bilb had been fouled up by
their deregulated gas marketers. In the winter
of 2001, another wave of consumer complaints
came crashing down when a spell of unusually
cold weather caused gas bilb from these deregu
lated marketers to skyrocket. The price of natural
gas has continued to spike upward this winter,
with many consumers complaining about monthly
bilb exceeding S400, S500, or more.
People make mistakes all the time, of course,
and on an issue as complicated as the deregula
tion of a major industry, it's no surprise that
Georgia's lawmakers might have flubbed it. You
would think, however, that people would learn
from their mistakes, but that does not seem to
be the case with legislators who should know
better. Ten years after the General Assembly hon
ored the request of AGL officiab and deregulated
the retail end of the gas industry, they are being
asked by the company to remove regulatory con-
trob over the construction of pipeline facilities.
AGL has lobbied lawmakers to Dass legisla
tion that would allow them to spend up to $300
million on a gas pipeline running from the coast
to Atlanta. The bill would allow AGL to bypass
the normal review process of the Public Service
Commission (PSC) and add a surcharge to month
ly gas bilb to pay for the construction costs. The
PSC would not be allowed to monitor the project
and make sure AGL wasn't imprudently running
up the construction costs. The PSC also would
not have the authority to review the project after
the pipeline was finished and make sure AGL
wasn't overcharging consumers with its monthly
surcharge. As a final touch, the surcharge would
be placed only on the bilb of residential and
small business consumers—AGL's largest indus
trial customers would not have to pay it.
Without question, it's a sweet deal for Atlanta
Gas. They would be allowed to build a major
pipeline and charge off the entire cost to small
gas customers without having to undergo the
normal regulatory scrutiny of the PSC. Once the
pipeline is finished, AGL could use it to ship gas
to Atlanta and then to customers in other states
up the Eastern Seaboard—after Georgia consum
ers have paid the construction costs.
If you think that's a bad deal for consumers,
well, you're not alone. PSC member Bobby Baker,
who was skeptical of the need to deregulate in
the 1990s, has abo questioned the wisdom of
this latest request from AGL. His warnings fell on
deaf ears when the bill came up in a House com
mittee. In fact. GOP sponsors of the bill treated
Bake', who's abo a Republican, with contempt
for even raising the subject. The Atlanta Gas
Light measure passed the House with the support
of influential House leaders like Speaker Glenn
Richardson, Speaker Pro Tern Mark Burkhalter and
Majority Leader Jerry Keen, heading from there
to the Senate and likely to Gov. Perdue's desk.
History could once again play itself out for the
benefit of Georgia's powerful gas company.
Tom Crawford tcrawford@capitolimpad com
Animal Control
Last Week’s Scorecard
Athens-Clarke County Animal Control respond
ed to 79 calb:
4 complaints of animal cruelty
5 bite cases
3 complaints of barking dogs
6 citations for ordinance violations
44 animab impounded:
32 dogs
1 cat
2 chickens
1 fox
8 raccoons
14 dogs placed
4 adopted
8 reclaimed
2 turned over to other agencies
ACC Animal Control press release for the week
of Feb. 16 to Feb. 22.
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