More than 300 people packed the auditorium at Effingham County High School Tuesday night to tell state regulators they disapprove of the proposed pollution discharge permit for King America Finishing.
Many spoke of their personal losses since the largest fish kill in state history in May 2011 left more than 38,000 fish dead in a 70 mile stretch of the Ogeechee River, all of it below the textile manufacturer’s discharge pipe.
“This discharge has destroyed the river and destroyed my property,” said Tommy E. Pope of Bulloch County.
Others expressed disbelief that regulators allowed the company to continue to discharge.
“It’s unbelievable watching the chemistry set of poisons that seemingly intelligent people are trying to decide if it’s OK to dump in the river,” said Joe Watson, speaking with sadness in his voice. “Everybody sitting here knows it’s not. Don’t issue the permit. Don’t issue it.”
The crowd applauded, as it did for most of the more than 50 speakers at a hearing that lasted about three hours.
The Environmental Protection Division’s Jane Hendricks outlined the proposed permit at the hearing’s start, emphasizing that it provided more stringent regulation of six parameters previously allowed, plus new monitoring for nine others. The new permit would also restrict the effluent volume to 10 percent of the river’s flow, a provision found in only five of the state’s 1,200 discharge permits.
It’s too little too late, said many of the speakers, who recounted how the river seems devoid of its eagles, ospreys and turtles, as well as fish. Residents won’t let their dogs swim in the river.
Several suggested a spray field on King America Finishing’s 900 acres to take care of its wastewater in the same way that some local municipalities do. Some called for third-party monitoring of the plant. The draft permit allows for the plant to continue monitoring itself, a situation at least two speakers called “the fox watching the henhouse.”
“I think it’s time to go back to the drawing board on the permit, and issue a permit with teeth — one that much more drastically limits what King America Finishing is allowed to release in their wastewater,” said Ann Hartzell, board president of the Ogeechee Riverkeeper.
Wayne Carney called for landowners along the Ogeechee to demand that tax assessors reduce the value of their property.
“Why would you want to pay anybody to poison you?” he said. “Go to your county assessor’s office and demand that your land that now has poison on it be reduced in value to $5.”
William Joe Hunter, a World War II veteran who helped found the predecessor of the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, called publicly for the arrest of the two EPD officials on the stage. The sheriff’s deputy in the audience declined to oblige him.
Attorney Hutton Brown of Greenlaw read a letter from Auburn University assistant professor Alan Wilson who has studied the river since the 2011 fish kill.
“It is very easy to understand,” Wilson’s statement read. “The location of the dead fish is the best indication of King America Finishing’s responsibility in this matter. There were 38,000 dead fish below the discharge. None above the discharge. Under normal conditions, water quality above and below the discharge is indistinguishable. Clearly a toxic concentration of ammonia had been released and King America is responsible.”
Jim Ussery, assistant director of the EPD, sat silently on stage for most of the hearing. During a break in the hearing, he said he didn’t blame people for coming to the conclusion that King America Finishing was responsible. But it wasn’t a conclusion EPD had the proper evidence to support.
“I never found an analytical component I could point to,” he said. “The fish were dead below the pipe and alive above it. People are right to draw the conclusion. But I can’t physically prove it.”