What power and what authority does the EPA and now the EPD have over states, counties, and cities? Do they have the authority to require these governing agencies to add departments to do the work already being done by other departments?
I am not convinced that authority is theirs. I think politicians and even ordinary citizens may feel a need to form a department just to buffer themselves from being in violation of some ordinance that the EPA or EPD might apply to them. If existing departments already have the responsibility to respond to the EPA and EPD, then why burden the already overtaxed citizens with another department that will grow to an enormous size just to placate the EPA and EPD?
We frequently hear of stormwater issues, but most were addressed in the 1960s and the change was dramatic and very much needed. I was there then and remember swimming in a river upstream from the large dam that held acres of water provided for the city where I lived, and while swimming I observed human excrement floating not two feet from my face. At that time this was the norm for many rivers and streams, not the exception. While working for the consulting firm of Farnsworth and Wyley, installing complete sanitary sewer systems in small towns all around Bloomington, Illinois, I can remember George Farnsworth’s famous saying, “It may be excrement to you but it is bread and butter to me,” and it was. Thousands of small towns were changed from an integrated storm and sanitary sewer to separate storm sewer and sanitary sewer. Industry changed at the same time and no longer could they dump their waste without first refining it and purifying it. This went for the air quality also.
All this to say that the EPA did a great job, but as always a good thing without restrictions can quickly turn into a bad thing. Over the last two years we in Fayette County have had two stormwater issues and one drinking water issue brought to the forefront of public opinion by a publicity-seeking politician and a county manager who turns to an expert every time he cannot handle problems he was hired to resolve himself. All of this leads to two questions I have regarding the two stormwater issues.
One: Why would we pay a fine, tax, or a levy on something that does not need to exist? The stormwater fee is based on the amount of non-permeable surface (asphalt—shingles, roadway; concrete—driveway, patio, sidewalk) that belongs to a person, a store, an industry, a school or church. What the EPA and EPD don’t mention is that soil is a non-permeable surface also but they want us to believe it is permeable.
For example, at the Fayette County town hall meetings we were given illustrated information about how rainwater comes down from the clouds, flows through the soil under houses and buildings and into streams and rivers, and the cycle is repeated and repeated, leading us to believe that soil is permeable. Soil is not permeable but it is absorbant. Water does not flow through soil but is passed from one particle to another until each is wet. Clay soil will pass through a #200 sieve (200 openings per inch), but if you pour about 4 oz of water into a #200 sieve, the water will be retained on that sieve until you touch the bottom of that sieve with your finger (that is how small clay particles are). Here are two experiments you can do that will show you how water moves and does not move through material:
Take a 5-gallon bucket half full of water. Place one end of a hand towel or a long cotton rag into the water and let the other end drape over the rim and down towards the ground. Go away and come back in about two hours and you will see a puddle of water below the rag, i.e, water runs uphill as well as downhill.
Fill the same 5-gallon bucket with water and go out to your yard and pour it all on the ground. You will notice that it does not flow through the soil as the EPA and EPD say it does but 95 percent runs off and down hill. Now take another 5-gallon bucket of water and go next door to your environmentally correct neighbors’ porous concrete driveway and pour it all at once onto the driveway. You will see the water magically disappear into the concrete. From this experiment we can clearly see that concrete is permeable and soil is not. If soil is permeable how can a pond or lake be formed? How can you make a dam out of a permeable material? Why do we have mud puddles that children love to play in? If soil is permeable, how can it retain water?
Two: What do corrugated metal pipes and dams and spillways have to do with water quantity and quality? Quantity is neither increased nor decreased by water flowing through a corrugated metal pipe or through a concrete pipe or a box culvert or under a bridge. Quality of water is neither improved nor worsened by flowing through these pipes. Why should quantity or quality of water be changed because it flows into or out of a pond or lake? If what the EPA and EPD say about water quality and quantity being adversely affected by dams, why do we continue to retain water in lakes in order to have a constant source of drinking water?
I am a civil engineer (without a degree), a construction manager (without a degree), a public works manager (without a degree), but I will tell you that if you are a good manager very few people will know it. When problems come up you handle them quickly and quietly and few people know the problem was there. A poor manager will publicize the problem, tell everyone that he or she is on top of the problem and that they have hired an expert to tell them how to handle the problem.
It is still my opinion that the spillway is a maintenance problem that has nothing to do with the EPD and should fixed and the lake filled, and whatever problem our county manager has with the EPD he should resolve. Isn’t that his job? The dredging and boat docking issues on the lake will take another opinion. I would like to see and hear the opinion of “We the People.”
Charles Phillis
Peachtree City, Ga.
