Before any

action is taken on a proposed power plant in south Fulton County, a more

comprehensive environmental impact study will have to be completed.

That's the

word from Fulton County Commissioner Bill Edwards after attending a community

meeting last week in south Fulton about the plant.

Many residents

question the validity of a study compiled by Williams Company, who wants

to build a plant on 288 acres next to the Fayette border on Peters Road.

Mari Jo Paladino,

president of Safeguard South Metro, a community group of Fayette and Fulton

residents opposing the plant, referred to the environmental impact report

that Williams has already submitted as "a self-serving document that

basically says nothing, containing what-ifs, maybes and things like that."

Paladino asked

Edwards if he would require Williams to do another environmental impact

statement that would be done by an independent company.

"Absolutely,"

Edwards said. "I think that would be very fine. I think that if I

took something from them that was paid for by them it's gonna say what

they wanted it to say. So you would absolutely have to have an independent

outside source to do that kind of thing. We need to get some real information

like that," said Edwards.

He was adamant

that he would not rely on information provided by Williams and said all

the information would have to be in place before he made up his mind on

rezoning the Williams site from residential to industrial.

While he would

not comment on how he would vote on the issue, he told the audience to

remember how he voted on the fifth runway at Hartsfield.

Edwards cited

environmental concerns and voted against expanding the airport.

All of Fayette

County's governing bodies have formally asked the Fulton County Commission

and the Union City Council to require the impact statement before deciding

on the rezoning. Prevailing winds would bring most of the air pollution

from the plant directly into Fayette County, according to County Commission

Chairman Greg Dunn.

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