LETTER: Please support efforts to stop the incinerator

•The plant will burn 1,500–1,800 tons of garbage/day. That’s 936,000,000–1,123,200,000 pounds of garbage every year!

•97 percent will not come from Elbert County but will be trucked in from as far away a 90 miles (Metro Atlanta, Augusta, Athens, Greenville, etc.). Their trash will be our problem!

•Up to 220 trucks/day, 6 days/week hauling garbage through Madison County into Elbert County.

•The plant will use 400,000 gallons of water/day.

•The plant will make 5,000 gallons of sewage/day.

•The plant will be five to six miles from downtown Elberton, the hospital, businesses, and almost every school in the county!

•The Broad River is only about 1 mile away!

•When the wind blows west Madison County citizens will breathe the fallout.

Do your own Internet research on waste incinerators and Covanata. Learn the impact they have on local economies, workers, and environments.

In my opinion:

•220 MORE trucks on our roads will greatly increase traffic hazards and road repairs.

•Property values in the surrounding area, especially those downwind from the plant, will be impacted.

•The health of all people downwind from the plant will be impacted.

•The increased diesel exhaust pollution will worsen asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

•Even when using state-of-the-art technologies similar garbage incinerators are known to emit enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrochloric acid, particulates, mercury, lead, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, dioxins, and furans even when they meet all EPA emissions standards!

It costs $190,000–$270,000 per mile to repave state highways in Georgia. The plant proposal says it will provide only $350,000/year to Elbert County. That could pay to repave only 1.3 to 1.8 miles of road! How can this be a profitable venture for Elbert County? Who will pay to repave Madison County roads?

There are streams, lakes, and rivers in Elbert County close to the proposed plant. Mercury collects and concentrates in fish! Mercury in very small doses is dangerous to human health. One gram of mercury will contaminate all the fish in a 20-acre lake! How can this be good for the environment of Madison and Elbert County? Who wants to fish in rivers, streams, and lakes when you can’t eat the fish?

If the Elbert County Commissioners insist on bringing a garbage incinerator to the county, I will have no choice but to stop shopping, dining, and recreating in Elbert County.

Please tell Elbert County commissioners and citizens a garbage incinerator is bad for Elbert County, and a bad for the surrounding counties.

Don’t leave this important decision up to Elbert County commissioners! If you are registered to vote in Elbert County sign the “right to vote” petition so you can vote for or against the Plant Granite project.

For more information visit cleanelbert.webs.com or email cleanelbert@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Jeff Pentz

Comer