My name is Ted Lee, and I was the only person from Decatur County to attend the public hearing Thursday, July 1, in Early County concerning the dirty coal power plant that Longleaf Power is proposing to build there.

I say dirty coal because they are using coal because they are using 1960s standards in their proposal.

This is not a small power plant like the one on the Flint River over in Mitchell County. This is a mega plant with mega pollution.

You may not think this will affect Decatur County, but if you look at a map you will see that the headwaters of Spring Creek and Ichawaynochaway Creek are due east of the proposed building site of the plant on the Chattahoochee River at Columbia. With our prevailing westerly winds, Spring Creek headwaters will be getting the loin’s share of the pollution.

Spring Creek is the most pristine waterway in Southwest Georgia, to pollute this with mercury and acid rain so that Early County can have 100 new jobs is a sin by any standard.

Lake Seminole is the No. 1 bass fishing lake in Georgia. Most of the pollutants from this plant end up there. This is too great an asset for Decatur County to lose.

Wallace Howell wrote in his outdoor article on July 7 that little or no water was passing through the dam at Chattahoochee. What will happen if this plant is permitted to evaporate its proposed 20 million gallons per day for the next 50 to 60 years (lifespan of the plant).

Farmers—on a yearly basis this plant will evaporate approximately the same amount of water as is used by 100 pivots.

Meloney Water had a letter in the July 7 edition about the similarities of the BP catastrophe and this coal-powered plant. So check this, Allen Barnes, the new director of the Environmental Protection Division of Georgia, was working last year with a law firm defending Longleaf Power. He took a huge pay cut to accept this job. So, the fox is in the hen house and he will issue this permit unless there is a huge push from the downstream/downwind citizens.

So I urge the people of Decatur County, especially the county commission, city council and any one with a voice that can be heard, to take a solid stand against this plant, because we have absolutely nothing to gain and a lot to lose.

Thanks,Ted LeeBainbridge, Ga.