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March 16, 2010

Stormwater group disbanded

Charles Oliver Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — A committee of local officials studying a regional stormwater utility has been disbanded after failing to reach a consensus.

Dalton Utilities sent a letter earlier this month to other members of the group canceling the meeting scheduled for March 4. The letter said that both Whitfield County and Murray County governments were unwilling to go forward and without their participation it did not make sense to continue.

State and federal regulators are putting more pressure on local governments to control stormwater, which can cause erosion and impinge on water quality if not properly managed. A study funded by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division last year recommended that local governments in Whitfield and Murray County join together to form a regional stormwater utility. The group had been meeting since that report was finalized last summer.

Dalton Utilities president and CEO Don Cope said the group was looking at a public education campaign managed by the utility to let people know why the issue is important and how it would be addressed.

Dalton Utilities manages stormwater issues within the city of Dalton.

“We think we can advertise stormwater issues just as well as Dalton Utilities can,” said Whitfield County Board of Commissioners chairman Mike Babb.

Babb said commissioners are wary of allowing an unelected body to manage stormwater in the county.

“When you’ve got people out there telling people what they have to do, there ought to be a recourse somewhere to an elected official, and it ought to come through that process as opposed to a utility process,” he said. “I think that was the basic disagreement.”

Officials say that each jurisdiction will continue to manage its own stormwater issues.

Murray County commissioner David Ridley did not immediately return a telephone message Tuesday.

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