At [a recent] Peachtree City Council meeting, Photocircuits, Inc. [was] given the remaining portion of their long-pursued variance request based on the merit of promises the corporation has made to the community.

At the end of this long saga, the citizens of Peachtree City and Fayette County might find their community a safer place to live. Photocircuits has promised to upgrade many of the safety devices in their existing facilities. In addition, they have upgraded their level of preparedness to combat certain types of chemical disasters as well as showing a willingness to work with surrounding residential areas.

Perhaps the most significant item to come out of the new awareness of hazardous chemicals in our community is the addition of a computerized, phone bank type early warning system. The system has the capability of alerting thousands of residents in a specific area in just minutes and has a multitude of potential uses. The system was presented and discussed at Fayette County's Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) meeting last May.

Of course, by no means should we think that everything is absolutely wonderful and that public scrutiny should not fall upon how our local government addresses pollution and the appropriation of our tax dollars.

For example, our Water and Sewer Authority allows industrial customers to monitor their own chemical sewer discharge levels. The Authority does check periodically but for the most part the companies monitor themselves.

It was very disturbing to find out through state EPD documents that our local government has actually requested to have pollution limits raised on heavy metal discharge so that a local Peachtree City company could increase its profitability.

This causes concern because the metals end up down stream and cause problems. The hazardous chemicals and metals also rapidly eat away at the treatment facilities causing them to be decommissioned early and a new plant has to be constructed at the community's expense. The hazardous discharge limits can then be increased at a new treatment facility and the vicious circle begins again at a higher level.

It would be very foolish not to keep an eye on your investment (time and tax dollars) in our community.

Steve Brown
Peachtree City

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