Fulton County Soil and Water Conservation Report for May 2000

by Alan Toney

The Soil and Water District reluctantly voted to give Fulton County back their Memorandum of Agreement.  The County has come a long way in the last three years. They now have a program in place that can do the job of enforcing water quality laws that keeps soil on construction sites and out of our state's waters.  But we still have concerns (now that we are not looking over their shoulder) that things may slip back to the bad old days.  The District plans to watch closely to make sure this does not happen.

We are still not happy with the way the County handles public works projects.  However, at the urging of the District and the Riverkeeper, the County is going to implement a new procedure that will require all public works projects to be reviewed just like any private developer's project.  There is still a lot of room for improvement at Fulton County, but we must commend them for the progress they have made.  Other counties in the metropolitan area could learn from what Fulton has accomplished.

The District has asked EPD to de-certify the City of Atlanta as an issuing authority.  Unfortunately, EPD decided to give the City another nine months to make improvements.  If past experience holds true, nothing will happen.  The City has shown some very modest improvements in their staff's attitude toward enforcing erosion and sedimentation laws, but they simply do not have enough inspectors to enforce the law properly.  Mayor Campbell's administration from top to bottom seems to prefer any development at any cost.  Their shortsightedness is truly disturbing.

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Last updated: 22 May 00