  Hydrodynamic cosmological simulations predict that the average opacity of the
Ly-alpha forest should increase in the neighborhood of galaxies because
galaxies form in dense environments. Recent observations (Adelberger et al.
2002) confirm this expectation at large scales, but they show a decrease of
absorption at comoving separations Delta_r <~ 1 Mpc/h. We show that this
discrepancy is statistically significant, especially for the innermost data
point at Delta_r <= 0.5 Mpc/h, even though this data point rests on three
galaxy-quasar pairs. Galaxy redshift errors of the expected magnitude are
insufficient to resolve the conflict. Peculiar velocities allow gas at comoving
distances >~ 1 Mpc/h to produce saturated absorption at the galaxy redshift,
putting stringent requirements on any ``feedback'' solution. Local
photoionization is insufficient, even if we allow for recurrent AGN activity
that keeps the neutral hydrogen fraction below its equilibrium value. A simple
``wind'' model that eliminates all neutral hydrogen in spheres around the
observed galaxies can marginally explain the data, but only if the winds extend
to comoving radii ~1.5 Mpc/h.
