CBRI to City of Dallas: Clean Up Your Act or We'll Sue

The Coosa River Basin Initiative is telling the Northwest Georgia town of Dallas to clean up it's sewage problem, or it will sue.

The city operates facilities that have accounted for some 4 million gallons of sewage spills in Pumpkin Creek. That creek feeds into the Etowah River.

The city has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by state officials for the spills, but according to the CRBI, has not made the changes needed to stop polluting.

City officials have sixty days to respond before the suit can be filed.

Environmental groups lose challenge

Federal appeals judges are upholding the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to take away state pollution permits for two Georgia Power coal-fired generating plants. The Sierra Club and the Coosa River Basin Initiative were suing to stop permits for Plant Bowen in northwest Georgia and Plant Scherer just north of Macon. They argued the plants violate the Clean Air Act. This recent ruling upholds a previous judge's ruling that that environmental groups had not proved the permits fail to enforce the law, even though the EPA issued a violation notice against the plants in 1999.

Mall developers appease environmentalists

Environmentalists in northwest Georgia are celebrating a victory against developers building a mall in Canton. Last fall the Coosa River Basin Initiative -- or CRBI -- sued Sembler Atlanta Incorporated over plans for a 100-acre development off I-575.

The original plans called for filling in several tributaries of Canton Creek. Canton Creek is a habitat of the federally protected fish the Cherokee darter. Now, CRBI says it has settled with Sembler. The developers will pay five hundred thousand dollars to a conservation trust.

The company has also agreed to reduce its stream impact by a quarter. It will also implement extensive biological monitoring of the streams near the future mall.