EPD staff withhold Federal, State,and Chamber of Commerce comments from DNR Board members

The Columbus Ledger Enquirer reported today about the EPD staff did not present letters from Federal and Alabama state officials concerning proposed IBT rules, which they did not support. Letters from the Rome and Augusta Chambers of Commerce were also considered by EPD staff to be part of, "approximately 1,000 comments against the measure....from a form letter on an environmentalist web site." The entire article is here.

FACE contacted people who did submit comments, either by a letter they wrote themselves, or with a letter online. We value the time that was invested in doing that. In the future FACE will follow up with decision makers to make them aware of comments which have been sent.

We appreciate that fact that DNR Board Chair Earl Barrs was interested in what was submitted, and would have welcomed an opportunity to be aware of the comments. In the future we hope that EPD staff will better inform board members.

Katherine Helms Cummings
FACE Executive Director