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By: Jimmy Carter As printed in the preface of the "Flint River" book As a boy growing up in Archery, I worked fields that drained into Choctahatchee (or as we called it, Chock-li-hatchet) Creek. Choctahatchee Creek joins Kinchafoonee Creek, which merges with Muckalee Creek and flows into the Flint River just above Albany. The Choctahatchee was where I fished. It was where I learned about the out-of-doors, where I learned to explore and where I learned how not to get lost. It's where my playmates and I, and occasionally my father, had many hours and days together. We had an immersion in the natural world that has marked my whole existence. The Choctahatchee drainage is really the origin of my life. I still feel more at home and more in a natural element and closer to God when I'm out in the woods by myself, or just with Rosalynn, than at any other time. During those childhood years on the Choctahatchee, I developed an appreciation for the protection of at least part of the world the way God made it. It affected my life when, as a state senator, I had to deal with natural resources. It was a part of my attitude when I became governor. I was one of the founders of the Georgia Conservancy; I advocated the protection of the Chattahoochee River, particularly in the Atlanta area, and, as governor, I created the Georgia Heritage Trust, which had a budget of $11 million the first year. While I was governor, I had two major altercations involving the environment and natural resources. One was the designation of wetlands to be drained. This was a standard program that had never been challenged before I went into office. There were 535 projects for draining wetlands in the process of being approved when I took office as governor. During the four years I was in office, none of those projects was approved. The other altercation concerned the Flint River. There was a period of time during the economic evolution of our state's and our nation's history, when it was inevitable that many of our dams would be built and naturally free-flowing streams would be obstructed. The primary reason for these dams was power production, and in some areas, flood control. Later, to some degree, recreation became a justification. At that time there was a system in Washington that aligned U. S. congressmen and the U. S. Corps of Engineers in a process that led inexorably to the construction of more and more dams. It worked for all congressmen but particularly for southern congressmen, most of who were democrats and almost none of who were challenged once they became an incumbent. One of a congressman's highest goals in life was to have built in his district a notable dam at federal government expense that would create a lake that could be named for him. There was a standard procedure. The process began when a newly elected legislator went in as a junior member of congress. He would put his name on the list to get a dam built in his district. That dam might be at the bottom of 500 dams to be constructed in America. But as the congressman got re-elected time after time, eventually his particular project would move up to the top of the list. As a result of this system, the Corps of Engineers, part of the United States Army, was subverted in its basic integrity. The motivation for the Corps was not to make an objective analysis of costs of a project versus its benefits, but to make sure that it pleased the members of Congress by guaranteeing that the computed benefits of each dam was always far in excess of the costs. At least on paper. The Corps of Engineers abandoned its basic integrity, uniformly over the whole country, in order to justify those projects; to please the congressmen who supervised the operations of the Corps and who also appropriated funds for its operation; and to Justify its own existence. So there were hundreds and hundreds of dams being built around the country over a 10-year period. Almost all of them were unnecessary, yet, at the same time, they were quite attractive to the local communities involved as presented in the economic benefits analysis prepared by the Corps. The Flint River dam at Sprewell Bluff fell into this Washington pork barrel pattern. In the case of the Flint, the major factor considered by the Corps in assessing the value of the proposed dam at Sprewell Bluff was recreation potential. The Flint is the longest remaining free-flowing major river in Georgia. It is free flowing until it gets down to Lake Blackshear in Crisp County some 200 miles from its headwaters. Congressman Jack Flint, a good man so far as I know, wanted to dam up the Flint River near Thomaston, which was in his district. When I became governor, I became aware of this. As an environmentalist, I was interested in the identification and preservation of natural areas. I was becoming more and more involved with people who enjoyed the streams and the out-of-doors in its natural state. I became an avid canoeist. I learned how to kayak. I learned how to roll a kayak in the Georgia State University swimming pool. I began to go down the Chattooga River, which was the setting for the movie Deliverance. At the time, the Flint River was basically ignored. But when the idea of the dam came along, I was urged by a few outdoorsmen, fishermen and environmentalists to take a critical look at the project to see if it was justified. I personally canoed down the river twice. I went fishing on the river for shoal bass, a species indigenous to the Flint. I began to see what would change about the upper Flint if the dam at Sprewell Bluff was built. I started a commitment which was quite time consuming but not unpleasant of meeting with groups who were interested in the Flint River. I met with 50 different groups in the governor's office. I met with concrete manufacturers and salesmen. I met with people who anticipated building a big recreation center in the neighborhood of Griffin and Thomaston. I met with chamber of commerce people who pointed out that during the dam construction period, which might last two or three years, there were going to be as many as 200 jobs created. These were people I had worked with in the past. I understood their point of view. I had been a businessman in a rural community myself. |
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