Brunswick News
Wed, Dec 12, 2007

Altama testing important

On behalf of the Glynn Environmental Coalition, and on behalf, as we believe, of all the people of Glynn County, and especially all the teachers, staff, parents and children of Altama Elementary School, I want to thank you for your editorial support for appropriate, timely retesting of the soil at Altama Elementary.
In the wake of chilling indifference to this problem by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, our very own taxpayer-funded federal regulator of environmental dangers, we are heartened by your urgent message of community concern. For my own part I applaud your insistence that the investigation and soil analysis must happen now, and that the resolution of this matter is too important to allow the dead weight of political finger-pointing or gamesmanship to interfere.
On its own to date, the Glynn Environmental Coalition has not overcome the intransigence, baffling to us, of the federal regulators, nor brought about the investigation of the site and analysis of the soil so clearly called for by the EPA's own Office of Inspector General. We have tried throughout this process to get the issue resolved without causing undue alarm to the parents of Altama Elementary's students.
The use of appropriate analytical methods for discovering and measuring toxaphene will or will not find toxic residues, and any hitherto unreported toxaphene degradation products. But with prompt testing and removal of any contaminated soil that may be found, we know that a happy resolution of this issue will be achieved.
The GEC works hard to form partnerships with our fellow residents of Glynn County, and to build consensus with the businesses and political leadership of our community about how to resolve this and other quality-of-life issues we all face.
We are grateful to the Brunswick News for advocating so forcefully to have this issue resolved now by the responsible parties.
Thank you again for your leadership in this situation; together we can move forward to a successful resolution, and to a most happy new year.

Bill Owens, President
Glynn Environmental Coalition