Money to reduce sediment runoff being diverted

<p>A 2003 law meant to keep red mud from sliding off construction sites and into state rivers and streams meant developers paid an extra $80 an acre for projects.</p><p>As a result, $5 million has come in within the past year. But state regulators who enforce erosion and sediment regulations have seen less than half of it.</p><p>Legislators have been using the rest of it to pay for other state services such as troopers and health care. That leaves fewer people to enforce sediment rules and less money being used to train local inspectors and engineers.</p><p>Last week, the state's top environmental regulator told the Board of Natural Resources she does not have the staffing or resources to enforce federal and state laws protecting streams and rivers from pollution.</p><p>"Even with the rules we have today, our rivers are running red (with Georgia clay)," Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch said. "We're not getting those fees sent back to us."</p><p>The Department of Natural Resources board, which votes on the state's environmental regulations and policies, scolded the General Assembly earlier this year for using most of the money meant to protect the environment to plug budget holes elsewhere.</p><p>Sediment flowing off construction sites is a major polluter of Georgia's rivers and streams, state officials say. The silt fills up lakes and degrades drinking water, making it more expensive to treat. It also threatens dozens of endangered species of mussels and small fish.</p><p>Dirt control is the third environmental program paid for by user fees that legislators have dipped into. In the past two years, more than 80 percent _ about $31 million _ of the fees and fines collected for cleaning up hazardous waste sites and illegal dumps has been diverted to the general fund.</p><p>State Sen. Casey Cagle, R-Gainesville, said the Legislature was forced to shift some user fees to reach a balanced budget.</p><p>"The truth is, we had a ... deficit in the Medicaid budget," Cagle said. "That's the aged population, the blind population, the truly needy people within our state. Erosion is very, very important, but when you have to fund the necessity of keeping people alive, it's an easy choice to make."</p><p>Cagle and a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue said they are hopeful the state's financial situation will continue to improve so that user fees collected for erosion control will be spent on that in next year's budget.</p><p>"It's vital to our environment and it's the responsible thing to do," Cagle said.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2865964)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/12/155369