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Tires - Trash Talk

Hey all you Georgia paddlers, hope you had a safe and fun holiday and July. Keep praying for rain. Just got back from Paddle Georgia on the Flint River. Like all of Georgia’s rivers, the Flint is extremely low and suffers from lack of rain. GCA had a large presence with GCA safety boats guarding the 300+ paddlers on the Day 2 journey through Yellow Jacket Shoals and during the week with deadfall and technical places.

Vincent Payne did an awesome job giving the safety talk before the paddle started with the “Paddle Safety Bingo” game. Even those of us who have heard the safety talk too many times to count listened and learned something. If you ever have to do a safety spiel for a large group, this is an effective, fun way to get the job done.

The Flint is extremely clean, but we had decided months before to do a clean up on Monday’s paddle. I learned a lesson about assumptions, and did not say what NOT to pick up since I had seen very little trash of any sort the first 2 days. We had a huge shock when piles of tires and trash were brought in that evening. One canoe with 3 teenagers had 13 tires in it! (Don’t ask, you need to see the pictures). We ended up with 35 tires and over 800 pounds of trash. The DNR Ranger told me it was the biggest clean up ever on that section of the Flint!

Most of the tires were placed long ago by fishermen to give fish a place to nest. We have seen the same thing in Lake Lanier. Tires were generally considered “non-hazardous” and OK to use for this purpose. The research has proved different and we have begun removing them. If you remove tires from a river, please keep the following in mind. If the tire is submerged, will remain so and is adding stability to the riverbank and is not a hazard, I generally suggest leaving it. If it is sticking out and has exposed areas and might be a breeding place for mosquitoes, it is an excellent candidate for removal.

Be extremely careful when handling and removing tires. They harbor critters that can bite, sting and generally cause you to have an unpleasant journey. Ask Jim Albert: I have not seen him since he helped us on an Upper Chattahoochee River event and had multiple critters from a tire gang up and attack him in his canoe. Tires also have mud, sand and rocks and are extremely heavy. Balancing a tire on a kayak is almost impossible: canoes have more success but they still take excellent balance and control. Unless you have a place to off load your tire quickly you will be traveling down the river with the beast.

The other issue is disposal. Tires can not be put in a regular dumpster, they have to be recycled. If you don’t have a trash collection exemption or figure it out ahead of time, they can cost $3.00+ each and you have to get them to the recycle center. If you are planning a clean up, tires must be addressed and disposal determined before you start the event. If you have some tires that are bugging you, by all means get them, but if you are just generally doing a clean up, I suggest “NO TIRES.”

Rivers Alive’s (www.riversalive.org) 10th year of supporting waterway clean ups is this year. We are producing special T-shirts and will have 2 shirt choices in the offering along with boat stickers. Registration is open so get your river event on the calendar.

Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (www.chattahoochee.org) is holding the first headwaters “Save the Hooch” event at Indigo Joe’s Restaurant in Cumming on July 26. This is a Sweetwater Beer event, so beer will be featured and on sale along with music and food. Come help us “give our liver to save the river.” Times and other information on the UCR website, See you on the river, keep it clean!

by Bonny Putney, GCA “Trash Queen”
From The Eddy Line, August 2008

Big Brother and the Water Bill

I'm proud of my in-laws. As my mother-in-law puts it, "the drought really changed the way we looked at things" and our water usage.

As a result, over the past few years they have gone from not thinking about water usage and having one of the best lawns in Dunwoody (thanks in part to their automatic sprinkler system) to being some of the best water conservationist I know. But as the old expression goes, "no good deed goes unpunished" and there has been hell to pay with the Dekalb county's Tax Assessors office because of their diminished water usage.

My in-laws have been told that they "are not using enough water" for someone that lives in Dunwoody. Apparently, Dekalb County is hoping to catch someone who owns property elsewhere and really does not use their Dunwoody home as their principle residence. My mother in law says that she has spent
hours on the phone explaining it to the County but they aren't listening.

But it gets worse for the 80 year old couple. I could hardly believe my eyes yesterday when I read the Dekalb County Tax Assessors formal notice demanding copies of their complete income tax returns, tag receipts, and other documents for the past 3 years.

I have to wonder, does the Dekalb County Tax Assessors Office have the right to monitor your water bill and go after you if they don't think you are using enough water? Do they have the right to demand copies of your federal income tax forms? Would you want to supply them with this kind of information and potentially risk identity theft? And the other thing that's really odd is why would Dekalb County monitor water bills on the one hand and then serve legal notice for documents like car tag receipts that they can just get from walking down the hall? If big brother is going to monitor you, why don't they do the job to the point where they could answer their own questions?

Of course, if the 80 year old Dunwoody couple had not cut their water consumption none of this would have happened. And this begs the question of what are we supposed to do with the low flow potties new low flow washing machines/dishwasher s? To keep the county happy I suppose you could just turn the sprinklers back on or leave a faucet running? Or maybe you just take your chances on being hassled?

What a kick in the groin for water conservation.

Something sure seems wrong with this picture.

John Pinyerd
jpinyerd@cs. com
O) 770-575-1433
C) 678-357-7843

Last Updated ( Monday, 23 November 2009 00:13 )

GEAN Environmental Alert Emails

Fellow paddlers: This is a rebroadcast of a message I sent a couple of months ago, plus a little more. The first little more is to tell you that GCA now has 44 email contacts of record with the Georgia Envionmental Action Network (GEAN). We need 50 to be a fully accredited voting member of GEAN. Please read below the importance of us becoming voting members. Please read below that relevant minutes from the GEAN Steering Committee meeting I attended on Tuesday in Atlanta. Can six of you please belly up to the bar, log on to www.protectgeorgia.net and provide GEAN with the information they need so I can vote at the next meeting on behalf of the paddling community on these political issues that are so vital to us. www.protectgeorgia.net Dan MacIntyre Fellow Paddlers: We have an opportunity for the paddling community to obtain a seat a a very important table. We need your help to do that. A principal communication mechanism for the environmental community in Georgia is the Georgia Environmental Action Network (GEAN). GEAN has developed an utilizes very effectively a powerful communications tool. They will send to anyone who subscribes to their service an email alert when an important environmental issue is being decided and your input is needed. The email will include a briefing on the issue and the decision that is about to be made. The email will also include a template of an email you can send to support the pro-environment side of the issue. The magic of this communications mechanism is twofold. First, you can edit the proposed communication in any manner you wish, or delete it entirety and compose your own email from scratch. Secondly and uniquely, GEAN will deliver your email to exactly the person or persons who need to receive it. Since the receiving person will often be your state Senator or Representative, you will need to give GEAN your home address so they can identify who your senator and representative are. Obviously GEAN must also have your email address. GEAN is managed by a steering committee made up or one representative from each member organization. It is this steering committee that determines what issues will be the subject of emails and prepares the briefing on the issue and the proposed communication to the decision maker(s). The Georgia Canoeing Association has been selected to become a member of GEAN and provide a representative to the steering committee. To qualify for this membership, at least 50 individuals must sign up to receive the environmental alert email and identify themselves as members or friends of GCA. If you are not currently a GEAN subscriber, you need to go to www.protectgeorgia.net. Click on the "sign up" tab and fill in the blanks in accordance with the easy to follow instructions. When you get to the second page of the form, you will find a section titled "I am a member or friend of" with a list of organizations below. Scroll down and check GCA. (You can also check other organizations if you wish.) Having done that, continue to follow the directions. You will then become a recipient of the GEAN email alerts and will have this communication mechanism through which to make your views know to the critical decision maker(s) on the issue at hand. You will also have helped GCA be one person closer to having a seat at the table where it is decided what issues are to be the subject of alerts, how those issues will be briefed and what initial proposed message will be prepared. If you are already receiving GEAN alerts, you need to go to www.protectgeorgia.net and log in. and click the link that says "update profile". Then go to the second page and click on GCA in the "I am a member or Friend" list. GCA will now get credit for you in its drive toward the 50 participants needed for full voting membership. Please help our club and the environment of our state by joining the GEAN alert system. If you have any questions or concerns, I would be glad to discuss them with you by email or telephone. Dan MacIntyre
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 November 2009 11:02 )
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Stegal Mill Rapid on the Cartecay

We were talking tonight about how the name of a rapid on the Cartercay has changed names for some strange reason. I have been running this river since 1976 - in fact my ex-husband's family owned all the land on both sides of the river at the covered bridge - actually back then there was no covered bridge. However, after the ex's grandmother died the land was divided among the 11 siblings. Some chose to keep their land other chose to sell to development. "Farist" Rd. was my ex's family.

Now people are referring to the river's slide/fall rapid as Blackberry. It was and as far as I know always called by locals as Stegall Mill Fall. Just curious how it metamorphosed into Blackberry. Blackberry is the development that came about in the 80's. The developer even took control of the river trying to banned paddlers from using the river and take-out at the falls. Jay represented the paddlers and was able to get the Gilmer County Commission to permit paddlers to take off the river below the covered bridge.

Blackberry Development has never done one thing to be honored by the naming of the rapid. They were allowed to develop too close to the river and when the river rises the trash/debris from decks, lawn furniture and like have littered this river for years. And, it seems no one is responsible for cleaning up the homeowners messes. They probably spend more on keeping paddlers off the river. Unless someone knows otherwise, I suggest paddlers call the rapid Stegall Mill. Quit giving credit to those who basically ruined a great river.

Steve & Alice

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 November 2009 11:16 )

On the Etowah, Amicalola

On the Etowah, Amicalola Improvements in Dawson County by Rick Bellows Two major projects have made access to the Etowah and Amicalola rivers in Dawson County much easier. On the Etowah, construction is winding up on the new put-in at Highway 9, the start of the Dawson Forest section of the river. The put-in, which will include ample parking and a short flight of steps to the water, replaces the steep, cramped, informal put-in under the Highway 9 bridge. Other improvements, including a visual gauge and informational billboards, are planned. An opening ceremony for the new put-in is scheduled for the morning of Saturday, April 26. As it happens, April 26 was also the date chosen for the last of this year's three Georgia River Explorer Series paddles on, coincidently, the Dawson Forest section of the Etowah. Rather than interfering with each other, these two events are being coordinated to complement each other. Details are still in the works, but the basic plan is for the GRES paddlers to be there for the ceremony, which will essentially end with the group launching on down the river.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 November 2008 11:49 )
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