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NPDES permit reissuance-City of Atlanta Combined Sewer System.
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The Rockdale County Soil and Water Conservation District (RCSWCD) is currently led by 2 duly elected and 2 appointed Supervisors. Along with the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission, the District, established and empowered by a Federal mandate, works in cooperation with private landowners, local businesses and governmental entities to encourage the conservation of the state's natural resources that are the basis for economic growth and prosperity. Aided by the USDA's Natural Resources 

Conservation Service, this effort ensures productive lands and healthy ecosystems.

Historically the City of Atlanta has used the South River as an extension of its sewer system, never even aspiring to return the City's waste to the river as it was taken.

Many of us on the RCSWCD Board remember the South River in earlier years as an open sewer... with all the shameful unpleasantness. Beginning in the 1970's, EPA regulations profoundly changed the River. The stench, the 3'-tall soap suds, grey-green water and, the incredible burden of sediment and pollution all but went away. The South River has made a remarkable recovery... and more work needs to be done to eliminate trash, pharmaceuticals and fecal coliform from the river's water.

It is breathtaking to those of us on the RCSWCD Board that our State's Environmental Protection Division is not just that... protecting the environment. Why would our state agency even entertain the notion of going backwards after so much hard won progress has been made?

In Rockdale County we now have a State Park that straddles this River and a multi-use path that travels the South River's length through our county. Our communities, particularly the young people, are taking a new interest in this lovely river with its rocky shoals, Mountain Laurel and broad white sand bars. It is the duty of the EPD, as it is the duty of the RCSWCD, to do all in its power to improve the quality of the water in our community.

Do the right thing.

Rockdale County Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisors: Russell Tonning, David Shippe, Fox McCarthy & Eddie Shirey