UPDATE on April 2
The budget that emerged from the conference committee included the $405,000 for EPD’s portion of the cost of operating the streamgages for fiscal 2006. No guarantees, but it appears the Governor will sign the budget into law. In short, it appears the streamgages are safe for the moment. Further efforts to eliminate the funding may arise in the future and require ongoing monitoring.
A special thank you to those of you that provided comments on this issue. Conferees got quite a bit of communicatin on the streamgages issue.
THE ISSUE
The continued operation of the USGS streamgages in Georgia is facing an immediate threat. In the past, half the funding for the gages has been provided by the state through the Environmental Protection Division (EPD). USGS matched the funds to keep the gages operating.
This year, the Georgia Senate voted in favor of a budget that would eliminate the EPD funding for streamgages and would likely have the effect of closing the gages. The state House voted in favor of a budget that includes the funding for streamgages and the budget, including this issue along with many others, is now in the hands of a House/Senate conference committee.
AW members already know the streamgages are important to our safety as well as our enjoyment of Georgia rivers and streams. The same is true for fishermen, swimmers, campers and other recreational users. Information from the streamgages is also used to forecast floods, to determine flood plains, to establish water plans and to determine how much water governments and industries can remove from a watercourse and how much treated water they can add to it.
What’s needed now is for paddlers, both Georgians and non-Georgians, to contact the members of the conference committee and urge them to fund EPD’s portion of the streamgage costs. In the case of House members, that means urging them to stick to their guns: for Senate members, it means urging them to agree with the House position.
The members of the conference committee are:
Rep. Ben Harbin (Columbia County) – ben.harbin@house.ga.gov 404-463-2247
Rep. Jerry Keen (Brunswick/Glynn County) – jerry.keep@house.ga.gov 404-656-5052
Rep. Mark Burkhalter (North Fulton County) – mark.burkhalter@house.ga.gov 404-656-5072
Sen. Eric Johnson (Savannah) – eric.johnson@senate.ga.gov 404-656-5109
Sen. Jack Hill (Reidsville) – jack.hill@senate.ga.gov 404-656-5038
Sen. Tommy Williams (Lyons) – tommie.williams@senate.ga.gov 404-656-0089
Telephone calls are more personal than email, but the legislative session is about to end and all the Senate and House members are nearly unreachable by phone due to the late-session clog of business.
Communications to the conferees, especially from people outside Georgia, should emphasize the economic impact of paddling on the state as well the convenience and safety issues. Tell the conferees how often you travel to Georgia to paddle, how much you spend each trip and how it would not be practical to make the trip if you couldn’t verify in advance that the river you want to paddle is running.