Managing Editor Scott Wright has been with The Post since 1998. He is a two-time winner of the Society of Professional Journalists' Green Eyeshade Award for humorous commentary. He is also the author of "A History of Weiss Lake" and "Fire on the Mountain: The Undefeated 1985 Sand Rock Wildcats,"  both available at www.amazon.com. He is a native of Cherokee County.

The Wright Angle
Sept. 5, 2011

Call your county commissioner

By Scott Wright

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Add my name to the list of concerned citizens who want you to call your county commissioner. Last week, Weiss Lake Improvement Association President Carolyn Landrem sent out an e-mail to an extensive list of people in Cherokee County. Her e-mail contained a copy of the sewage ordinance proposed by Probate Judge Melvyn Salter at the Aug. 22 meeting of the Cherokee County Commission and made available to the public a few days later.

I hope the people to whom Mrs. Landrem sent her e-mail will read the proposed ordinance, realize the importance of the document, and follow through on her simple, one-sentence request: “Please take the time to read and send your comments and support to the Cherokee County Commission.”

Landrem sent the e-mail to an extensive list of city and county government officials, as well as judges, lawyers, doctors, bankers and business owners in Cherokee County. I hope all of them will take the time to do as she asked, especially since Weiss Lake is the main source for drinking water for many people in Cherokee County.

It is also a lot more. Weiss Lake is where thousands of people from out of state come every year to fish, swim, ski, and spend money. In my opinion, the future economic viability of the lake – and Cherokee County – may depend on whether or not the people on Landrem's e-mail list take the action she requested and succeed in convincing the commissioners to approve the ordinance.

I have not yet asked the commissioners their feelings about the ordinance, but I will next week and I'll report what they have to say in the Sept. 19 issue of The Post. They know, as well as the rest of the people who call Cherokee County home, that Weiss Lake has had a problem with illegal sewage dumping for years. Because of that, I think I know what they want for the future of the county. (I'll let them tell you in their own words in a couple weeks.)

However, my expectations from the current members of the County Commission should not dissuade anyone on Landrem's list (or anyone else concerned about the future of this county) from calling their commissioner. Sadly, for as long as there has been a Weiss Lake, county officials have shirked their responsibility regarding the protection of the reservoir, preferring instead to point fingers at Alabama Power or the Health Department, or simply turn their heads and hope any problems – such as illegal sewage dumping – would magically disappear. But the crisis that has been created over the years by the long-term effects of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of substandard sewage disposal systems scattered around Weiss Lake – some as disgustingly simplistic as metal barrels buried in the ground with pipes running directly into the water – is not going to go away without action.

The head of the Alabama Department of Public Health, Dr. Donald Williamson, recently pressed for and received a variance allowing for state-approved temporary holding tanks that, pumped regularly and inspected annually, will go a long way towards resolving the problem. The next step, as voiced repeatedly by Dr. Williamson and other state health officials, is for the County Commission to pass the sewage ordinance now before them.

Among other declarations, the proposed ordinance would affirm that “treating or disposing of sewage by a means that is not approved or permitted by the Cherokee County Health Department constitutes a public nuisance and presents a threat to the public's welfare, health and safety.” The ordinance also establishes that any sewage system not approved by the Health Department would be automatically considered evidence of “illegal or improper treatment and/or disposal of sewage.”

Without this new ordinance, there is no easily enforceable system in place to prevent this long-established practice from continuing. Therefore, it is my hope that the people on Landrem's e-mail list (and a lot of others) will take a couple minutes to call the County Commission office at 256-927-3668 and let their voice be heard on this matter.

Let's not stand by and risk letting the best opportunity this county has ever had to clean up Weiss Lake be flushed down the toilet. If we do, our children and grandchildren will despise us for it — and we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.