<p>Georgias U.S. Senators have questioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys authority to fine seven Georgia quail plantations $335,000 for poisoning wildlife in an effort to kill predators of the game birds eggs.</p><p>But a top EPA enforcement official is asking the agency to stand firm, saying the proposed settlement is still too light, according to a memo obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.</p><p>Plantation managers were accused of setting out chicken eggs laced with the pesticide Furadan to kill foxes, possums, coyotes and other creatures that eat quail eggs. In 1999, state wildlife rangers found three alligators, several raccoons, squirrels, snakes, a red-tail hawk, songbirds and other species dead near chicken eggs containing the poison.</p><p>A state investigation targeted 16 plantations. Four of them _ Kolomoki near Blakely, Albemarle and Ecila near Albany and Nochaway in Leary _ were required to pay fines of a few thousand dollars to the state Department of Agriculture, which regulates pesticide use in the state.</p><p>Two former officers with the state Department of Natural Resources claimed political interference ended their investigation of the illegal poisoning, which also was blamed for the deaths of hunting dogs in southwest Georgia.</p><p>In October 2002, the EPA reopened the investigation, subjecting plantation owners to significant federal fines. Plantation owners, who include some of Georgias wealthiest and most influential men, claimed that reopening the cases amounted to government harassment.</p><p>Last week, the EPA said the settlement had been reached with seven plantations. In a separate agreement, the EPA would levy a $24,000 penalty on a plantation owned by Atlanta developer Tom Cousins, the Journal-Constitution reported Saturday.</p><p>The newspaper said Senators Zell Miller and Saxby Chambliss wrote acting EPA Administrator Marianne Horinka last month, asking the agency to explain why it had renewed enforcement actions against the preserves. They also asked the agency to spell out its authority to pursue the case.</p><p>Regional EPA Administrator Jimmy Palmer replied that the penalties initially imposed by the state and the pervasiveness and seriousness of the violations warranted tougher punishment. He asserted that the EPA has the legal right to renew enforcement actions.</p><p>Palmer spokesman Carl Terry said Friday that although a final settlement was expected this week, final details were being resolved.</p><p>According to the memo obtained by the Journal-Constitution, Ann Pontius, head of the federal agencys toxics and pesticides enforcement division, said the proposed settlement with the seven plantations was not sufficient to deter illegal wildlife poisonings.</p><p>Pontius noted that the EPA took over enforcement of the cases from Georgia because the state settled for two little.</p><p>Her memo said even the EPAs agreement failed to take into account the severity of the poisonings, which resulted in actual harm to the environment in the form of numerous deaths of animals, including federally protected threatened and endangered species and migratory birds.</p>
