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Politics & Government

Oconee Agriculture Scientists Continue Work While Facing Uncertain Future

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss again pledges his support to save Watkinsville's J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resource Conservation Center from closure, along with Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis.

Public officials are rallying behind the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research center in Watkinsville, following a cost-cutting proposal that would close its doors after decades of service.

Oconee County Commission Chairman Melvin Davis was busy making calls this week, trying to get through to legislative leaders to urge them to do all they could to save the 1,100-acre off of Highway 441, he said.

“If it does close or they do follow through with the recommendation, that would be a blow to Oconee county,” Davis said. “There are a number of research items that are conducted there at that facility that is applicable to the Southeast. The greenspace is important to a lot of people, so that should have an impact should that go to some type of development. That I would hate to see.”

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Sen. Saxby Chambliss has also pledged support, his spokesman, Bronwyn Lance-Chester said.

“Sen. Chambliss has been a longtime supporter of the center,” Lance-Chester said.  “He will review all available non-earmark options to keep it open. While he understands that the president did not include the center in his budget, Sen. Chambliss will continue to try and find ways to help it stay open and continue its work.”

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U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, whose district includes the J. Phil Campbell center, could not be reached Thursday afternoon.

President Obama's proposed spending plan for 2012 includes a total of $42 million in cuts to agricultural research and and nine others across the country. However, the proposal still requires nods from both the House and Senate.

If approved, the Watkinsville center would close by Oct. 1, 2011.

Three years ago, the center faced closure under President George W. Bush's budget proposal, which cut $84 million in funding for agricultural research, but the funding was restored after a request by Chambliss, according to an Athens Banner-Herald article.

This time, Dwight Fisher, the center's leading researcher, has already urged his staff of 25 to start looking around for new jobs, he said.

"I've told people to look now, because you really don't want to wait a month to start looking," Fisher said. "If this ends up where it goes through, there will be 400 people across the agency displaced, so that's a crowd."

The Watkinsville center had made cuts of its own over the years, reducing its staff of 30 by four, but it's been hindered by a budget that hasn't changed in more than a decade, while having to keep up with salary increases and rising maintenance costs, Fisher said.

“We don't have enough money to do what we need to, and therefore you become subject to closure,” Fisher said. “The science is not the issue. We can go out and get grant money to do research, but you can't get a competitive grant to roof a building or fix fences.”

The center runs on an annual budget of $2.9 million, and its closure and nine others would help defray the cost of additional biofuels research projects, spread throughout the country, in the coming year, he said.

“They would distribute (the money) basically through five centers nationwide, and the money goes to fund additional biofuels research,” Fisher said. “It's especially frustrating for us because we've done biofuels work here.”

Meanwhile, at the research center, Fisher and other scientists will push on and continue their work on a $250,000 project studying the best way to grow organic foods, like greens and wheat, for a commercial enterprise in the Piedmont Region.

“This is the season we were going to start it," Fisher said. "We'll have to continue to function, but if something really bad did happen, and we couldn't complete it, the money would go back to the granting agency … that would be a worse-case scenario.”

Scientists at the station are also studying how gypsum can be used to help water filtration in soil and recently published a study on how to limit the growth of E. coli pathogens from surface water, he said.

Correction: In the original version of the story, the acreage of the was reported incorrectly.  It has been changed. The date the center would close if the House and Senate were to approve the president's proposal was also incorrect and has been changed.

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