Governor Don Siegelman's office Wednesday announced that its new commission to protect the environment will have 55 members, many of them outspoken advocates of tougher environmental standards and regulation.

    "Clearly, over half of the commission are undeniable environmental conservation advocates," said Pete Conroy, chairman of the new Commission on Environmental Initiatives.

    The commission's members include at least 20 environmentalists, 10 representatives of industry, heads of several state agencies and first lade Lori Allen Siegelman.

    More than 400 people applied for spots on the commission, Conroy said.

    Siegelman created the group last spring, saying he wanted to restructure the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, create strategies to protect Alabama's wild places and pull the state off several "most polluted lists".

    The group must make its report January 15, before the next session of the Legislature.  When Siegelman announced the new commission in April, Conroy said he hoped to hold the group's first meeting within a month.

    When naming members took three times that long, some environmentalists began to speculate that Siegelman wasn't sincere about environmental reform.

    Conroy said the announcement took so long because of the size of the group.  He said the group will meet within a month, and said he and the governor have been working on the issues already.

    The group will not be able to reform an agency by next January, Conroy said, but it can outline many steps the Legislature should take to do so.  The group will continue its work after the January report, he said.
 
 

                Committee hears issues in Guntersville,
                 comes to Huntsville today

               10/10/00
               By LARANDA NICHOLS
               Times Staff Writer

               GUNTERSVILLE - Hog and poultry farmers told a state hearing in Guntersville Monday night they live in
               fear of tougher environmental rules.  Many in the crowd of 150 applauded when farmers said that more state
               restrictions would take money out of their pockets.  ''We want to operate within the law but we have a right to
               make a living for our families,'' Brian Hardin of the Alabama Pork Producers told the hearing held by the Alabama
               Commission on Environmental Initiatives. ''We shouldn't have to live with threats of lawsuits and harassment.''

               The 63-member commission appointed by Gov. Don Siegelman is to complete a report on changing
               environmental laws by Jan. 15.
 

                         Speak your mind in the forum

               The hearing at Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge was one of more than a dozen the commission is holding
               across the state. One is planned in Huntsville today at 6 p.m. at Calhoun Community College on Wynn Drive.
               Poultry farmer David Hodges of Guntersville said his ''biggest fear is the environmental issue will bring the
               whole industry down.''  ''Farmers are the master environmentalists,'' Hodges said. ''We know that if we do
               not take care of the land, the land will not take care of us.''  Rural residents have sued over farm operations, Hodges
               said, but there ''are always sounds, smells and sights'' in the country that are not like those in the city, and vice
               versa.

               Dan Smalley, the largest poultry farmer in Marshall County, said he and others worked with the Alabama
               Department of Environmental Management several years ago to come up with farm regulations. But he said
               changes in those rules are being considered because some groups have threatened lawsuits.

               One proposal would require a farm to be at least a mile from a residential area, Smalley said, and that would
               require a farmer to buy 25,000 acres as a buffer.  ''If that is what you want, then you don't want food
               products grown here'' in this country, Smalley said. ''We support scientifically based regulations but not those
               based on emotions and politics.''  But Wayne Cummings of Pisgah, president of Sand Mountain Concerned
               Citizens, said his group opposes large farm operations on the mountain, particularly hog farms.

               Cummings said poultry farmers are ''doing a pretty good job'' protecting the environment, but many lawsuits have
               been filed across the state over hog farms. One of those cases is being tried this week in DeKalb County.
               He said his group is proposing new laws for large hog farms, including a two-mile buffer between the farms and
               homes.  Brad McLane, executive of Alabama Rivers Alliance in Birmingham, agreed that poultry farmers have
               improved  their environmental record under ADEM but said the state should take a look at large hog farms.

                     © 2000 The Huntsville Times. Used with permission.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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                                                                Last updated:  October 11, 2000