NEWS - State-Regional News

By Lou Phelps, SBJ Staff

Nov 7, 2011 – The Georgia Water Coalition named its "Dirty Dozen" for 2011 over the weekend, listing what the group considers the current worst offenses to Georgia's water.   

“What unites each of our Dirty Dozen examples is that in practically every case our waters are being abused in ways that benefit a few, but harm many including property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, boaters and swimmers, and more.  A broken system allows these problems to occur and continue without resolution, often with catastrophic consequences,” said the respected environmental group.

“Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division has seen its funding cut by 44 percent since 2008, seriously jeopardizing its ability to enforce the state’s environmental laws. More problematic is the political cronyism that puts business and industry interests on the state board that oversees EPD—the agency that regulates those same businesses. Even the current Director of EPD, another political-appointee, was previously a partner at a law firm that represents regulated industries, some of which are on the Dirty Dozen list.

In such a system, the political will to fully enforce Georgia’s environmental laws and implement policies that protect our water, land and air will always be lacking,” said the group.  

Leading the list was pollution into the Ogeechee River. “For five years, King America Finishing Co. (KAF) has discharged toxic substances to the Ogeechee River without the state’s knowledge or approval. Even while citizens complained to Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) about the plant’s discharge, and while EPD personnel inspected the textile manufacturing plant, the pollution continued unabated. EPD’s failure to protect the Ogeechee led in May 2011 to the death of an estimated 33,000 fish—the largest known fish kill in state history. Not only did EPD fail to discover the problems at the facility, EPD failed to adequately warn the public of the health dangers following the spill. Adding insult to injury, subsequent actions taken against the facility excluded public input and did not even require immediate compliance with the law. After the kill was discovered, it took EPD several days to warn the public and almost a month to instruct the company to stop the dumping. EPD could have fined the company up to $90 million for violating clean water laws; instead EPD required the company to spend just $1 million on yet-to-be-named environmental projects in the area,” they state.

The Savannah River makes up 25% of this year's list, with 3 out of the 12 being from the Savannah River Watershed including the ‘Harbor Deepening’ project at Savannah, ‘Broad River Valley Farms’ and the ‘Brier Creek Fish Kill.’

“We are hopeful that our continued work throughout the Savannah River basin will continue to result in the betterment of our waterways.  The wonderful work of the Georgia Water Coalition over the past decade has been a great benefit to us all and Savannah Riverkeeper is looking forward to being on the leadership committee of the GWC for the next 10 years, said the Savannah Riverkeeper’s group today, in a statement released with the report.

Addressing the Harbor Deepening project, the Georgia Water Coalition report states that “the current attempts to deepen the Savannah Harbor not only threaten endangered species but the drinking water in the Savannah River as well.”

Savannah Riverkeeper said that their group is dedicated to ensuring the harbor deepening project only moves forward when appropriate mitigation has been approved and paid for.

The call to action for the top 12 sites or projects of concern to the group include:   

1. Ogeechee River: Polluter Devastates Ogeechee for Five Years and Goes Undetected by EPD

2. Altamaha River: Rayonier Pulp Mill Discharge Destroys Fisheries

3. Savannah River: Costly Harbor Dredging Wrecks Savannah River Estuary

4. Chattahoochee River: Critical Minimum Flow Neglected at Atlanta

5. Shoal Creek and Flat Creek: Unnecessary Reservoirs Threaten Downstream Communities, Endangered Species and Public Coffers

6. Oconee & Ogeechee Rivers: Speculative Coal Plant Permitted Even Though it is Unneeded and Will Harm Water, Air and Fisheries

7. Flint River: Flint River Sucked Dry as EPD Allows Too Many Withdrawals

8. Coastal Wetlands: Docks in Georgia’s Tidal Wetlands Spoil the “Marshes of Glynn”

9. South Georgia Wetlands: Four Decades of Ditches Dry Out South Georgia Wetlands

10. Broad River: Waste Disposal “Farm” Fouls the Broad River

11. Brier & Commissioner Creeks: Fish Dying In Kaolin Country and EPD Doesn ’t Know Why

12. Coosa River: Coal-fired Power Plant’s Water Withdrawal and Heated Water Discharge Threaten River’s Health

The complete report, including pictures of the alleged pollution, can be found at http://www.garivers.org/gawater/pdf%20files/finalreport.pdf.