WELLMAN: Local leaders need to speak out, hold Georgia Power accountable

Published 10:00 am Monday, December 14, 2020

At the time of this writing, a Federal judge in Fulton County is considering arguments in a lawsuit against Georgia Power, aiming to prohibit the company from passing over half a billion dollars of projected costs for the cleanup of coal ash ponds at numerous facilities across the state onto our citizens. The remains of the Plant Branch location on Lake Sinclair is one such facility where these ponds exist.  

Per reporting from seven days ago on Dec. 1, Georgia Power announced that the cleanup efforts, at least at facilities in the Northwest portion of the state, will take up to 15 years to finish.  

The toxic dangers these ponds present to our communities is not a new revelation, and is especially dangerous to both our local citizens and our local economy here in the Lake Country. Because of the failures of our local county and state leaders to create a successful economy outside of our booming fast-food industry, we have effectively resigned ourselves to being a sleepy retirement community. And any economist will tell you that it is an extraordinarily difficult challenge to overhaul any local economy by those on fixed income alone. Regardless, the lack of vision by our local leaders has made that the challenge we must face.

The lake is our most precious resource to attract new business and industry to the area but now that we recognize the coal ash ponds are presenting such a dire environmental challenge to the lake, it will only compound the difficulty we face in creating a better economy.

I am especially concerned about the potential health hazards the ponds present to our citizens, myself personally worried as my family’s home is on the lake with our well pulling from the same, shared aquifer.  How many toxins have my family, and countless other families been exposed to? What are the implications for my health, my family’s health or that of my baby daughter?

As I mentioned before, the dangers of these ponds are not new revelations. They have been known for decades. If Georgia Power had conducted its business responsibly, the process of addressing these ponds would have begun years ago.  

There is no fairness, no justice, in allowing a monopolistic company to destroy our environment, limit our economic growth, expose our families to potential life threatening illness and then pass the cost of that irresponsibility onto the citizens and communities who are already suffering.  

If our county and state leadership here in our local community had any courage at all, they would be speaking out unequivocally against this rate hike and hold Georgia Power accountable. But like far too many issues facing our community, we do not hear their voices, only their silence. And with their silence comes their consent.  

Byron Wellman

Eatonton