Burwell Creek Battle Engages City Commission

Spring in the Burwell Creek property. A proposed 60-acre retail center would bury this floodplain forest along the Oostanaula River in Rome.

Some 30 Romans turned out for a meeting of the Redevelopment Committee of the Rome City Commission today, April 23, at 2:30 p.m. to urge the City Commission to consider a resolution calling for the protection of the Burwell Creek wetlands and the construction of recreational trails connecting Ridge Ferry Park and historic Jackson Hill.

The resolution proposed by CRBI is in response to the continuing threat of a 60-acre retail development on city-owned land adjacent to Riverside Parkway and Ridge Ferry Park. The proposed Citi Center development involves filling some 50 acres of floodplain and destroying some 4 acres of wetlands.

Before receiving a development proposal from Rome-based Ledbetter Properties in 2005, the city had commissioned a study that proposed using the Burwell Creek wetlands, Jackson Hill and Ridge Ferry Park to create “Rome’s Central Park.”

CRBI opposes the retail development on the site but has proposed a compromise in which the developer would set aside about 6 percent of the property to protect critical wetlands and provide for additional natural/recreational corridors through the retail center, connecting the city’s other park areas.

The Committee fell short of taking action on the resolution, but Commissioner Kim Canada requested that Ledbetter Properties and CRBI meet and provide a report to the Committee at its June 26 meeting. This marks the first time that the City Commission has directly requested that Ledbetter Properties meet with CRBI. Previously, the Commission had only encouraged such discussions.

At the meeting, Mayor Evie McNiece chided CRBI for “shirking responsibilities” for what she perceived as CRBI’s failure to engage with Ledbetter Properties.

The path through the Burwell Creek wetlands has been underwater continuously since Janaury.

On the contrary, during the past year, CRBI has contacted Ledbetter Properties on at least four occasions, presenting suggestions for improving the project and requesting opportunities to meet with the firm. Ledbetter Properties has indicated they will consider CRBI’s suggestions.

CRBI is encouraged by the Committee’s direct request for dialogue with Ledbetter Properties and intends to meet with their representatives to further discuss ideas for altering the development plan and intergrate preservation of wetlands into site designs.

Unfortunately, the Commission appears to be continuning a stance in which resolution of the conflict over the Burwell Creek wetlands remains the responsibility of CRBI and Ledbetter Properties.

CRBI believes the City, which must grant final approval of the site plans, should be actively involved in the discussions. More than 1000 individuals who live in, work, or visit Rome have signed a CRBI petition opposing development of the Burwell Creek wetlands, yet the Commission continues to hedge when responding to this opposition. The Commission should be actively seeking a compromise that satisfies the desires of all its constituents

At Wednesday’s meeting, Rome citizens Julie Smith, Georgia Burns, John Reiners and Rex Hussman all spoke in support of CRBI’s resolution. Others rose to spoke but were denied the opportunity by Committee Chairman Canada.  Despite the strong attendance from citizens for a work day meeting, Mayor McNiece dismissed the gathered citizens as “meaningless,” suggesting that there were many Romans who supported the Citi Center retail development.

Meaningless? Yes, there are many citizens that support this development, but Mayor McNiece is unwise to take lightly 1000 petition signatures and 30 citizens at a day time meeting.

Rome’s City Commission could best serve this community by responding to the citizens that attended today’s meeting. The resolution remains on the table. The citizens have spoken. They have told commissioners that preserving wetlands and developing recreational trails through natural corridors should be a priority for the community.

In the meantime, CRBI will engage in discussions with Ledbetter Properties and continue our mission of informing and empowering citizens to protect our rivers–including wetlands connected to those rivers.  When well-informed, citizens can always be counted on to set things straight.

A FINAL NOTE: If you haven’t checked out the Burwell Creek wetlands recently, they are in their full spring regalia. The wetlands portion of the property has been continuously flooded since Janaury. Ducks are nesting in the area and a walk through the area provides a surprising escape from the nearby hustle and bustle. Click here to view some recent photos of the wetlands on CRBI’s Facebook page. 

Citizen Activists Score One on Political Insiders

Here’s a heart-warming story from a most unlikely place—the Georgia General Assembly.

A clear cold spring bubbling forth from the Floridan aquifer spills into the Flint River in Southwest Georgia. The Flint depends on the aquifer for much of its flows, but the aquifer has been depleted by massive agriculture-related water withdrawals.

As I watched the Senate’s debate over the Flint River Drought Protection Act on the video feed outside the chambers with other Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) members, who should stroll up together but Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) Director Jud Turner, accompanied by former EPD Director Harold Reheis. (see story page 1) 

Turner, and his EPD staff, were the presumed authors of the Flint River bill. Reheis works for Joe Tanner & Associates, a firm that just months earlier had garnered a $4.4 million state grant to experiment with an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) scheme to “augment” flows on the Flint. He was likely one of the bill’s “shadow writers.”  As proposed by Reheis’ employer, this ASR-flow-augmentation scheme could ultimately cost taxpayers and/or water utility customers as much as $1.2 billion…and enrich Joe Tanner & Associates.

The bill being considered in the Senate would provide state funding for this very “flow augmentation” project, but the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ross Tolleson (R-Perry) when questioned by other senators, repeatedly denied any connection between his bill and the Tanner & Associates’ ASR scheme.

ASR “is not even listed in this bill,” he said, dismissing the warnings of GWC activists as “lies and distortions” from people in the hall.

Full disclosure: Sen. Tolleson received a $1000 campaign donation from Joe Tanner & Associates in 2012 (as an incumbent running uncontested). In fact, the consulting firm headed by Tanner, a former Department of Natural Resources commissioner, donated more than $46,000 to the campaign coffers of Gov. Deal and other key legislative leaders in 2012. Besides Reheis, Tanner also employs Allen Barnes, the predecessor to Turner as EPD head.

Against such free-spending and politically-connected opponents, I held little hope that this bad bill could be defeated, but GWC’s member organizations went to work. Action alerts went out and hundreds of conservationists across the state responded. Meanwhile, GWC lawyers educated legislators about the underlying problems with the bill that could fundamentally change Georgia’s existing water laws.

On the last day of the session, CRBI worked side by side with more than a dozen GWC professionals at the Capitol to defeat the bill. Unable to secure enough “yes” votes to assure passage, the bill’s supporters opted not to call a vote on it.

In the closing moments of a session in which ethics legislation stole the headlines, a band of citizen activists exerted more influence than the political insiders. In a place where cynicism is as thick as the Georgia Code itself, this was, indeed, a heart-warming story. You can read more about the Georgia General Assembly session in CRBI’s latest Mainstream newsletter.

A month after this victory, American Rivers named the Flint one of America’s 10 most endangered rivers because of Georgia’s history of allowing too many municipal and agricultural withdrawals from the river.

Moving forward, citizens and river protection groups must remain ever more vigilant as these political insiders vie for millions in state tax dollars to fund their pet water supply projects–many of which may not be in the best interest of our rivers, our tax dollars and our communities.

Will Hometown Developer Do the Right Thing & Save Burwell Creek’s Wetlands?

Kayakers float over the sites of future restaurants and shops at the proposed Citi Center building site in Rome.

In a recent column, Rome News-Tribune columnist Pierre Noth opined that the Coosa River Basin Initiative was “flat-out wrong” (Read The Column Here) when it came to its opposition to the Citi Center shopping center proposed for publicly-owned greenspace that sits between the city’s Ridge Ferry Park and historic Jackson Hill along Riverside Parkway.

The more than 1,000 individuals who have signed CRBI petitions opposing this conversion of public greenspace to parking lots and big box stores disagree. Not because they hate shopping centers, jobs and a growing tax base, but because when we fill wetlands and alter the floodplain, we all lose.

Since we began transforming the shape of our country’s land more than 200 years ago, the U.S. has lost more than half her wetlands. The result: increased flood damages, loss of plant and animal species, declining commercial harvests of important freshwater and saltwater fisheries and polluted water.

The impacts of the great flood on the Mississippi in 1993 were intensified because of the loss of more than 64 million acres of wetlands in the upper Mississippi River basin. The same is true here in Rome. The Oostanaula River’s high water marks since 1900 came in 1946, 1947, 1951, 1977, 1990 and 1996 after—not before—the raising of Broad Street and the construction of the levee system. The only flood to surpass these high water marks of the 20th century was Rome’s 1886 flood. It’s simple—fill in the lowlands that naturally hold floodwater and the floodwaters rise.

The Burwell Creek wetlands in question are home to an incredibly diverse array of plants and wildlife. Take a walk through the wetlands this month and you will hear a deafening chorus of frogs. That’s no surprise. Wetlands are wildlife nurseries, breeding the plants and animals that a host of other critters need to survive. If you hunt or fish, your sport is dependent upon “swamps and bogs” like Burwell Creek.

Although wetlands make up only about 5 percent of the land area of the lower 48 states, they are home to 30 percent of our plant species, and more than one third of threatened and endangered species live only in wetlands.

Wetlands—even uplands wetlands like those surrounding Rome that are miles from the ocean—impact the health of our estuaries where commercially important seafood live. In Georgia the loss of wetlands is blamed in part for a 60 percent decline in the state’s  blue crab harvest and a 50 percent decline in the brown shrimp harvest since 1970.

Finally, wetlands help hold and filter water, including water-borne pollutants that would otherwise wash directly into our rivers and streams—the sources of our drinking water.

At Burwell Creek, there is much more at stake than a few acres of boggy forest.

This diagram shows the proposed shopping center location along with specific sites examined during the Burwell Creek floodplain paddle on Jan. 19. Many of the locations examined were under seven feet of water.

On Jan. 19 when CRBI led a group of 20 paddlers through the proposed Citi Center development, we paddled across acres of water. Sites where restaurants and shops would be built lay beneath seven feet of water. Since January 2010, the site has been similarly inundated at least 16 times. Is this the place you would build a shopping center? CRBI wants a vibrant and revitalized Rome, but the truth is, there are better places to build a shopping center.

After successfully stopping this development last year and insuring that the public will have the right to review future plans, CRBI is now petitioning the City of Rome and Rome-based Ledbetter Properties to create a site plan that protects critical wetlands on the property and preserves natural corridors for walking trails and wildlife habitat between Ridge Ferry Park and historic Jackson Hill.

These improvements will help limit the project’s environmental impacts and better incorporate the project into Rome’s recreational trail system and existing public lands.

It remains to be seen whether the hometown developer will do what’s right for its community and all those communities downstream.

Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen Highlights Dirty Politics, Dirty Water

Last month, the Georgia Water Coalition released its Dirty Dozen report highlighting the “most egregious offenses” to Georgia’s water resources.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration, which was the target of much of the report, responded by calling the 185-member coalition of environmental, hunting and fishing, business and faith-based groups a “liberal interest group.”

Label the messengers “liberal,” so the thinking goes in this state, and the message will be ignored.

But, a careful look at the Water Coalition’s “Dirty Dozen” shows that the message is about dirty politics as much as dirty water.

Within the report, the so-called “liberal interest group” highlights $213 million in government spending that should boil the blood of fiscal conservatives—never mind those traditionally concerned about clean water and air.

The dirty facts include $9 million in state gifts to Deal’s political supporters; $82 million in state loans to questionable reservoir projects and $122 million in fees collected from taxpayers that have been looted by state budget writers.

Headlining the Dirty Dozen was Gov. Deal’s $300 million water supply program, a pet project with the intended purpose of directing state loans and grants to “critical, cost-effective” water supply projects.

Not a bad idea…if “critical and cost-effective” remain the guiding principles. Unfortnately, cronyism trumped cost effective.

The only two projects to receive direct state investment (funds not requiring reimbursement to the state) were a $4.4 million well-drilling proposal for a private resort and water park owned by Deal campaign contributor Virgil Williams and a $4.6 million experimental groundwater injection proposal that will be conducted by Deal campaign contributor, Joe Tanner & Associates.

The Coalition, as well as professional groups representing local governments and water utilities, urged the Governor to make conservation and efficiency projects—our most cost effective water supply options—eligible for funding under his program.

The Deal Adminstration refused. When the first round of loans and grants were announced in August, $82 million of the $100 million awarded was directed to questionable reservoir projects. Most notable was a $29 million loan for a reservoir in Paulding County where the existing water system loses 25 percent of its water to leaks and inaccurate water meters—a problem that costs the utility more than $1 million in lost revenue each year.

Rather than helping the utility fix its leaking pipes, the Deal Administration has chosen to spend $29 million to deliver more water to these same pipes. In the private sector, a manager would get fired for such a decision.

The Dirty Dozen report also highlights the sad tale of the state’s Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste Trust Funds, pots of money generated when citizens purchase new tires or dump trash at landfills. The funds are supposed to be used to dispose of scrap tires and clean up industrial sites that are polluting our land, water and air. Since 2004, only $72 million of the $194 million collected under these programs has been used for its stated purpose. The rest has been looted to pay for other parts of the state budget.

In the private sector, that’s fraud, but in state government it’s business as usual.

It’s time these betrayals stopped. Gov. Deal has the power to do that. He can make conservation and efficiency projects eligible for funding under his water supply program and he can insist that fees paid by citizens are used for their intended purpose.

Sweep out the dirty politics and we’ll have a cleaner, healthier state.

To learn more about the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen, visit www.garivers.org/gawater

Amos’ Odyssey in Words & Photos

View Amos’ slide show about his three-week, 200-mile journey through the Coosa River Basin. To support CRBI and education efforts associated with Amos’ Odyssey, please make a donation at http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/amostuck/amos-odessey

Donations of $35 or more receive a year’s membership in CRBI and five raffle tickets to win a new Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100 kayak from Cedar Creek Park in Cave Spring. The drawing will be held Nov. 10 at the CRBI WLAQ-The Ridge 95.7 Fish Fry.

To book an educational program for your school, civic, church or other group, please contact Amos at 706-232-2724 or atuck@coosa.org.

Amos’ Odyssey Day 22: 200-Mile Journey Ends on Weiss Lake

Tuck gets a welcome home hug from his father, Tony Tuck, while his mother Gwen looks on. Photo by Joe Cook

Sept. 15 Cedar Bluff, Alabama–On August 25,  I set out on an odyssey in the mountains of the Cohutta Wilderness. 200 miles, 22 days, four rivers, and one reservoir later, I have completed my journey. I thought this would be the trip of a lifetime, but I never imagined it would be this incredible.

My goal in undertaking this trip was to document and “put a face” on the biodiversity of the upper Coosa River basin. After observing holiday darters, Conasauga logperch, redeye bass, longear sunfish, freshwater drum, redhorse, river otters, river cooters, snapping turtles, kingfishers, muskrats, pistolgrips, three-horned warty backs, washboards, osprey and Conasauga crayfish (just to name a few), I have discovered first hand that we do live in North America’s most biologically diverse river basin.

A flock of great egrets shares a roost on Weiss Lake. Photo by Amos Tuck

Too often we confine ourselves to our habitats: Rome’s downtown area, Dalton’s carpet factories, Calhoun’s outlet mall or Cedar Bluff’s lake houses, and we tend to forget that much of our region is still wild—and our rivers are one of the area’s last strongholds of all things wild.

It’s that wildness that draws us to the river. All winter we dream of floating the waters of summer. Every time we cross a bridge, we crane our necks to catch a glimpse of the life below. I’m like many of the people I met on my trip. Like them, I just love rivers.

Zach (background) and Nolan Cave, nephews of Tuck from Cave Spring, and Chloe Mink, a niece from Cedartown, welcome Amos with homemade signs at Little River Marina on Weiss Lake. Contributed photo

And, although I traveled just 200 of the more than 700 miles of the Coosa River system (its more than 500 miles from Weiss Lake to Mobile Bay), I found that every day was a completely different experience—from the rocky shoals of the mountains to flat water of the Coosa.

As I approached Weiss Lake, I had a nostalgic feeling from my childhood. I remembered taking long car trips down to the Florida panhandle for family vacations on the coast. Those car rides would end with me waiting in anticipation for that moment when the landscape opened up and I could see the vast Gulf of Mexico.

Tuck arrives at Little River Marina on Weiss Lake at the end of his 200-mile, three-week journey. Photo by Joe Cook

I got that same feeling reaching Weiss Lake on this journey. I still had that ecstatic feeling of reaching the open waters, but this trip’s emotions were quite different. There was a feeling of sadness knowing that the odyssey was over. There will be a lot of things I miss about these last three weeks–the fishes, the sunrises and sunsets–but most of all, the rivers themselves.

Our bodies consist of 70 percent water. Having grown up in the Coosa River basin, drinking and bathing in its water most of my life, I’m mostly made up of the water of the Coosa River—the same water I have paddled and explored for the last three weeks. I set out to get to know these rivers on a deep personal level, but as it turns out, I was also getting to know myself.

Amos Tuck

Program Coordinator

Coosa River Basin Initiative

This is the last report from Amos’ Odyssey. Amos is currently organizing educational programs utilizing his images, video and stories from his journey. If you have a school, civic or church group that would be interested in learning more about Amos’ Odyssey and North America’s most biologically diverse river basin, contact Amos at 706-232-2724 or via e-mail at atuck@coosa.org

Readers can make donations to support Amos’ Odyssey and CRBI’s education efforts at www.coosa.org/events/amos-odyssey Donations of $35 or more receive a year’s membership in CRBI and five raffle tickets to win a new Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100 Kayak from Cedar Creek Park.

Tuck supporters take in the sunset on Weiss Lake from Little River Marina. About 25 people attended a river’s end celebration for Tuck hosted by Weiss Lake Improvement Association and CRBI. Photo by Joe Cook

 

A sunset view from Little River Marina on Weiss Lake marks the last light of Tuck’s three-week, 200-mile journey through North America’s most biologically diverse river basin. Photo by Joe Cook

Amos’ Odyssey Day 21: In Pursuit Of “Monster” Gar: Fishing on the Coosa

A great egret perches in a riverside tree along the Coosa. Photo by Amos Tuck

Sept. 14 Near Cedar Bluff, Alabama–The river has opened up and I have finally reached Weiss Lake. The difference between this lake and the mountain stream where I began this trip is astounding. I have only traveled around 190 miles, but the change in the rivers makes it seem much farther. The Conasauga was a lightly-used and hidden treasure, but here where Weiss Dam spreads the Coosa into Weiss Lake, the water is filled with people enjoying the river. And, the recreation of choice is fishing.

Today, I joined them, “hooking up” with expert gar angler Zack Williams for a gar fishing expedition. I have seen hundreds of gar during my odyssey, and I wanted to catch one.

Many people dismiss them as “trash fish.” They are often found in habitats where oxygen levels in the water are very low—in places where other oxygen-sensitive species can’t survive. Because of this many anglers unwittingly label gar as nuisance fish that prey on and eliminate all other fish. In reality, they have a unique adaptation that enables them to obtain oxygen from a swim bladder as well as their gills.

Riverfront docks and cabins line the Coosa in western Floyd County. Photo by Amos Tuck

Their long snout filled with needle-sharp teeth, their armor-like scales, their bony heads and their large size (they can grow to up to six feet in length) have also played into their reputation of being “monsters.” They are, in fact, prehistoric in character, having changed little since the day of the dinosaurs.

A for taste…when cooked up properly, I believe there are quite palatable (except for their eggs which are toxic). There is nothing quite like fried gar nuggets with hot sauce.

Not on the Conasauga any more, Tuck ventured out on the wide open expanses of Weiss Lake, an astounding change from the small mountain stream where he began his journey. Photo by Amos Tuck

Obsessed with catching one of these dinosaurs of the fish world, I enlisted the help of Williams. After paddling through the morning, I tied my canoe off on an island and hopped in Zack’s boat for a ride to one of his gar fishing holes. They are difficult to catch, in part because you don’t use hooks since they are ineffective in their bony, teeth-filled mouth. Instead, we employed frayed nylon rope—which entangles their teeth when they hit the lure.

We had a few bites, but the gar wouldn’t commit. Finally, miles of paddling had to take precedence over my gar adventure.

As I paddled down river and talked to other anglers, I learned they were having similar luck. But none of them seemed to mind. My favorite phrase is “it’s called fishing not catching.”

The sun dips low in the sky over Weiss Lake. Photo by Amos Tuck

Half the fun of fishing is just being on the water, hoping that the big one will take your hook. I have been asked if I was eating the fish I caught on this trip. The answer is that I don’t really have time to prepare the fish at night. That question is then followed with “then why are you fishing?” To that my answer is: “for the thrill of reeling in a fish.”

But that is not entirely true. That would be catching, I am fishing. Really, I am just trying to become a part of that underwater world. I use a lure to mimic an insect or small fish, not unlike a female mussel attempting to attract a fish with its “lure” so that it can release and fill the fish’s gills with her larval mussel. If I’m lucky enough to catch fish, I then get to admire part of that underwater world. Fishing lets us experience nature and, if we are lucky, see what it ordinarily hidden from sight.

Amos Tuck

Program Coordinator

Coosa River Basin Initiative

Readers can also make donations to support Amos’ Odyssey and CRBI’s education efforts at www.coosa.org/events/amos-odyssey Donations of $35 or more receive a year’s membership in CRBI and five raffle tickets to win a new Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100 Kayak from Cedar Creek Park.