Savannas are magnificent wildflower gardens. In the heat of the summer the fringed orchids are torches through the meadows. Blue-eyed and yellow eyed grass, white eyed sedge. Fall brings on the composites, purple spires of liatris, also called blazing star, brown rayless sunflowers, goldenrod, bigelowia and coreopsis. The aster balduina pools like orange juice in the wettest places and clumps of pearl-tipped hatpins stick the carpet of forbs to the flat earth.
White violets hover low.
This week, Gov. Don Siegelman threatened to oppose the opening of the Anniston Army Depot's chemical weapons incinerator in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld unless the Army improves and implements numerous safety measures. The governor's letter came on the heels of a similar letter issued by the Calhoun County Commission. According to the Anniston Star, nine citizen groups have signed a formal petition asking the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw its approval of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management's hazardous waste program. If the petition is granted, the EPA rather than ADEM would have enforcement authority over the state's hazardous waste program, including authority over the Anniston chemical weapons incinerator. The group believes ADEM does not follow federal mandates that it require hazardous waste facilities to have adequate contingency plans.