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Another opinion concerning dams on the Flint |
2009-12-01 |
By Tyron Elliot |
My good friend and client, Bob Tribble, has graciously allowed me to give a brief rebuttal to his recent column entitled “Dams Should Already Be In Place.”
Freedom of the press is a good thing.
Albert Einstein once said that everything should be made as simple as possible but not one bit simpler.
Bob has tried to make the water issues of the Flint River, the metro area and rest of Georgia one bit simpler than it is.
The river itself is complex. I urge the reader to take a look at the website http://www.flintriverkeeper.org and get a better understanding of this most diverse river.
It should be noted that extreme environmentalists, so labeled because they live near it and want to protect this rare and beautiful river, sponsor the site.
Atlanta folks call for a study about building dams on the Flint and decry those pesky Riverkeepers who oppose the concept. It’s just a study.
With all respect, any time a politician calls for a study he is simply seeking some facts to support what he already plans to do. The bottom line is that metro Atlanta wants our water.
So why should we care if metro Atlanta wants water from the Flint?
The old assumption was that what was good for Atlanta was good for Georgia. That might have been somewhat arguable in 1974 but today it is ridiculous. Even Bob admits no one wants to live in Atlanta.
Today’s Atlanta is a growth-driven, developer-dominated megapolis that needs water, and taxes out of the rest of Georgia so its addictive need for unbridled growth can be sustained. Nobody ever retires to Atlanta.
The new reality is that we will all have to learn to live within our means and that includes Atlanta.
The District Court ruling on Lake Lanier is a wake up call Atlanta should heed. Georgians can work together to share our resources but any thoughtful analysis of the water proposals coming out of Atlanta reveals that sharing is a one-way street to the metro area developers.
They want to abandon the doctrine of riparian rights, which simply states you must allow your downstream neighbor to have his share, you can’t take it all.
They want all roads to end in Atlanta and all water to flow to Atlanta. They could care less about leaving a mudflat in Meriwether or a dry well in Dougherty and as long as they have that attitude we must resist their efforts to dam the Flint for their own needs.
Bob calls the outcry that damming the Flint will damage it as so much hogwash. He has the right words just the wrong application. We know who the hog is and we are the ones getting the wash.
Elliot’s column is in response to Fayette Newspapers owner Bob Tribble’s recent column “Dams Should Already Be In Place” |
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