{"id":230,"date":"2013-01-01T12:51:17","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T17:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/plant-the-seeds-for-viable-water-future.html"},"modified":"2013-01-01T12:51:17","modified_gmt":"2013-01-01T17:51:17","slug":"plant-the-seeds-for-viable-water-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/plant-the-seeds-for-viable-water-future.html","title":{"rendered":"Plant the seeds for viable water future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThis AJC op-ed is about coastal wetlands, but\nmuch of it applies to wetlands such as cypress swamps and streams\nin Lowndes County and the rest of central south Georgia,\nespecially since\n\nour state water plan for the Suwannee-Satilla Region<\/a>\npoints us at\n\nCounty-Level Population Projections from the Governor\u2019s Office of Planning and Budget<\/a>\nthat project 45% growth in Lowndes County population in 20 years to 156,650 people by 2030,\nwhich means near doubling in 30 years to 2050. -jsq\n<\/p>\n

\nDavid Kyler wrote for the AJC 29 December 2006,\n“Plant the seeds for viable coastal future”,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nRecent population projections for the Georgia coast issued by\n\n\"2010-2030<\/a>\nGeorgia Tech say nothing new. We’re growing at almost 20 percent a\ndecade, meaning a near doubling every 35 years.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Center for a Sustainable Coast projected a population of about 1\nmillion by 2030 for the 11 counties in the coastal region as defined\nby the Department of Natural Resources, somewhat higher than the\n844,000 predicted by Georgia Tech. This compares with a population\nof 538,469 reported in the 2000 Census report.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut the accuracy of projections is not the point. Increased\npopulation will result in more land clearing and environmental\ndisturbance than in the past\u2014there will be larger homes,\nbigger lots and fewer people per household.\n<\/p>\n

\nNational studies show up to twice as much land is\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nbeing used per\n\n\"2030<\/a>\ncapita than in previous periods. This not only means more removal of\ntrees and other native plants but also increased habitat\ndestruction, erosion, stormwater runoff, and contamination of\nmarshes, streams and freshwater wetlands.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnother factor that is especially true on the coast but often\noverlooked is that new development tends to be in less suitable\nareas, since the best land (highest, driest and least\nenvironmentally critical) was taken first. That means more flooding,\nloss of valuable wildlife habitat and still further contamination of\nwaterways, marshes and other wetlands.\n<\/p>\n

\nBottom line: To expect even proportional environmental impact will\n\n<\/a>\nrequire more (and better) regulatory work due to the\ndisproportionately adverse effects of ongoing growth. Recent\ndecisions by the Georgia DNR board that weaken protection of natural\nresources do not offer much hope that our leadership’s learning\ncurve, or their motives, is up to this challenge.\n<\/p>\n

\nThree examples are particularly relevant. In December 2004 the DNR\nboard voted to eliminate all buffer requirements for headwaters,\n\n<\/a>\nand offered no follow-up monitoring to determine the consequences for\nwater quality. As a result it is almost certain that after heavy\nrains more pollutants are entering our already contaminated rivers\nand streams.\n<\/p>\n

\nEarlier, the same board cut by half the buffer requirements on trout\nstreams, which subsequent scientific analysis by University of\nGeorgia field researchers found to be correlated with an 80 percent\ndrop in trout population. Now, despite a landmark case still being\ndecided by the Court of Appeals, the DNR board is advancing new\nrules for the Marsh Act that, if adopted, will weaken protection of\nthis vital area of coastal Georgia that is essential to fish\nproductivity and thousands of coastal jobs.\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\n<\/a>
\n\n<\/a>
\n\n<\/a>\n<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\nThis leads to two fundamental questions:\n<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \nCan we tolerate even a doubling of environmental impact with a\ndoubling of coastal population without losing substantial quality of\nlife? Not if we want functional marshes, rivers and fish habitat.\n<\/li>\n
  2. \nWho will pay for the added enforcement and field monitoring needed\n\u2014 at all levels, from local to state and federal? Though developers\nshould pay their fair share, for political reasons it is doubtful\nthat they will\u2014even though the added costs would be marginal\nand could be passed on to consumers.\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \nLikewise, consider that DNR’s portion of the state budget plummeted\nby more than 30 percent during the last decade when state population\ngrew by almost as much.\n<\/p>\n

    \n\n<\/a>\nIs this the “new math” of Georgia politics? If so, it is setting a\nreckless course for our future, and we should go back to arithmetic\nand common sense.\n<\/p>\n

    \nDue to both political motives and the narrow, short-term economic\ninterests that tend to dominate them, the indicators are not\npromising. Until our leaders\u2014elected and appointed\u2014are\nwilling to concede the truth of this reality and honorably deal with\nit, how can Georgia responsibly prepare for a future that is both\nprosperous and environmentally sustainable?\n<\/p>\n

    \nInstead, political concessions continue to be made for an elite few\nwho game the system to take their money and run. After all, they\nmust reason,\n\n\"Center<\/a>\nif everyone who matters can fly to Montana to catch a\ntrout, why worry?\n<\/p>\n

    \nBut if all of our citizens are to be fairly\nconsidered\u2014including future generations\u2014Georgia deserves\nbetter.\n<\/p>\n

    \nDavid Kyler is executive director of the\n\nCenter for a Sustainable Coast<\/a> on St. Simons Island.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    \nJohn S. Quarterman is a board member of\n\nWWALS Watershed Coalition<\/a>.\n<\/a>\nWWALS is an advocacy organization working for watershed conservation of the Willacoochee, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Little River Systems watershed in south Georgia and north Florida through awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen advocacy.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This AJC op-ed is about coastal wetlands, but much of it applies to wetlands such as cypress swamps and streams in Lowndes County and the rest of central south Georgia, especially since our state water plan for the Suwannee-Satilla Region points us at County-Level Population Projections from the Governor\u2019s Office of Planning and Budget that […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[48,40,14,16,70,477,8,2,19,21,22,32,289,53,55],"tags":[1011,465,1014,8720,8717,1015,1012,8704,8706,8728,8771,8701,8699,8709,8702,464,12,7,8711,8712,8715,1017,1018,466,8758,8725,1016,6,8727,1013,985,463,8740],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-code-enforcement","category-community","category-economy","category-environment","category-ethics","category-ga-dnr","category-georgia","category-government","category-history","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-science","category-sustainability","category-water","tag-ajc","tag-alapaha","tag-center-for-a-sustainable-coast","tag-code-enforcement","tag-community","tag-cypress-swamp","tag-david-kyler","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-ethics","tag-ga-dnr","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-little","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-pollution","tag-population","tag-projection","tag-river","tag-science","tag-sustainability","tag-suwannee-satilla-region","tag-valdosta","tag-water","tag-wetlands","tag-willacoochee","tag-withlacoochee","tag-wwals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}