Thursday April 26 2012

Poster

On Tuesday evening, my Environmental Law class went to Sav State U.  for a forum on the Ogeechee River FishKill that happened last May (2011). Over 30,000 fish and several alligators were killed. Now other animal life is also showing signs of stress. The EPA came to look at the river/dead fish and said the GA division of the EPA- the EPD should investigate the cause. The EPD's own study revealed high levels of  ammonia and other chemicals that caused stress to the fish. Also, the pH and temperature of the water was raised. This was only evident at the location of this pipe coming from King America Chemical and past it on the river. The problems were not in evidence above the King America Chemical plant. The line of demarcation was quite clear.
The EPD made a deal with King America Chemical. The EPD made a consent order with KAC and simply fined them 1 million dollars. KAC had added a second pipe without a permit and had been dumping into the river for 6 years, but all they got was a fine. They are not being required to clean the river. That is unbelievable. The people that live and work on the river are devastated. The animal life is dying. But King America is allowed to continue business as usual.

When the class left the forum, we were all visibly upset. The only recourse we have is to write to our governor to try to draw his attention to this condition. KAC must be made to clean the river now before all plant and animal life on the Ogeechee River is gone. A special note, we have bald eagles in this area. They feed on fish. Does Governor Deal want to be the one who let the bald eagles of Georgia die?

I have written out letters and handed them out to people in Savannah. I hope to get at least a hundred people to send a letter to the governor. Signing a petition will not work. Receiving a single petition with even a thousand signatures will not have the same impact as a hundred separate letters!

Pipe from factory