Dalton plant fined for safety violations

Dalton manufacturer Columbia Recycling might have to pay more than $41,000 after federal officials found 11 serious safety violations.

"We found that the employer was not enforcing safety rules which could save lives," said Andre Richards, director of the local branch of the US Labor Department Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In January, a fire at the company killed one employee and injured two others.

Inspectors say the company had blocked access to fire exits, left electrical wiring exposed, and left liquid propane gas tanks in areas where they could be struck by vehicles. In addition, the inspectors say, employees without formal training were operating forklifts, and the company had no written emergency plan.

The fine is just a proposal. Columbia Recycling has 15 days to contest it.

The company makes conveyor belt material from recycled textiles.

Violence toward churches erupts in Middle Georgia

A rash of violence towards churches has erupted in Middle Georgia. Today, Holly Springs Baptist Church of Warthen in Washington county was destroyed. It was the second church to burn this week. Yesterday, Mount Sanai Baptist Church in Sandersville burned.

Gunfire was reported at another Washington county church last night.

A spokesman for state Insurance and Fire Commissioner's office said both fires are considered suspicious. The causes of the fires are unknown. Investigators are at the scene today.

Drought and fire update; water policing

Georgia's worsening drought means ground water levels are dropping to amounts usually seen only in late summer or early fall. Officials say it's not unusual for groundwater levels to drop as summer approaches; winter storms usually replenish the source. To get an idea of how low water levels are: the Suwanee River flows out of the Okeefenokee Swamp at around 1,600 gallons per second. This year it's down to a four-gallon-a-second trickle. But that didn't happen this past winter. The combination of an unusually warm spring and sparse rainfall has led state climatologist David Stooksbury to predict extreme temperature changes statewide this summer, as hot soils heat up their surroundings. "I do expect temperatures in North Georgia to be between 100 and 105. In South Georgia, between 108 and 115. Even in the mountains – in the mid 90s." With over half the state under severe drought conditions, officials say that barring a strong tropical storm, relief is unlikely any time soon.

FIRE'S EFFECT ON GA ECOSYSTEMS

Officials say so far this year, fires in Georgia have consumed more than four hundred and fifty thousand acres. Those fires -- along with one of the worst droughts Georgia's seen in decades -- mean the state's ground water levels are dropping. Stooksbury calls these events natural occurrences in the state's delicate ecological cycle. "Fire is good. It resets the clock. It regenerates the swamp. If you don't have fires in swamps they die." As for drought, Stooksbury says it a natural component of the southeast's climate system. Fire and drought serve an additional purpose as well. They help to eradicate invasive species giving native flora and fauna a better chance at survival.

NEIGHBORHOOD WATER POLICING

Last week, Atlanta city officials turned off the faucet on residential outdoor weekday watering. In Sandy Springs, parts of South Fulton County, and Atlanta, residential watering is restricted to midnight until 10 am. Officials elsewhere in the state, officials are getting tough with outdoor watering, as well. In Columbia County, east of Augusta, officials turned off the water supply to nearly 50 households which ignored repeated restrictions. Violators were turned in by their neighbors.

Suspected arsonist found dead in fire

A suspected arsonist has been found dead in Barrow County, in the midst of a grass fire he is thought to have set. Investigators say they think Kenneth Douglas Morhard set some of the more than 60 brush fires reported in Barrow County since February. Morhard – who is from Flowery Branch -- was reported missing to the Hall the night before firefighters found his body.