Hundreds of people are expected for a 7 p.m. public hearing Tuesday at Effingham County High School about a permit to pollute the Ogeechee River.
Many of them will be angry and frustrated with the state’s response so far to the largest fish kill in Georgia history, when in May 2011 more than 38,000 dead fish were found in a 70-mile stretch of the river beginning just a few feet below the discharge pipe for King America Finishing.
Last year, investigators found the Screven county textile finishing company had been operating an unauthorized discharge from a fire retardant line for five years. Tonight’s hearing focuses on that company’s new discharge permit.
The river suffered another smaller fish kill last month. About 100 dead fish were documented that time. Extended drought made flows much lower than in 2011, but to many the latest fish kill reinforced an already firmly held belief that the state Environmental Protection Division needs to do more to protect the Ogeechee.
That’s Ogeechee Riverkeeper Dianna Wedincamp’s assessment of the draft permit.
“It’s definitely not protective enough, and there are a lot of different issues,” she said.
She rattled them off: No limit on sulfates, too soft on mercury, over a ton of suspended solids allowed to be released daily, a lack of accounting for shad and endangered shortnose sturgeon.
“Fishermen are outraged at what’s going to be allowed to happen on this river if this permit passes,” she said.
The color of the effluent — she’s had reports of the river looking reddish-orange last week — and the presence of formaldehyde are also key concerns.
“It’s unacceptable,” Wedincamp said. “You can’t change the color of a black water river. It’s totally unacceptable to discharge formaldehyde in a blackwater river. EPD needs to adopt and accept EPA’s standards on formaldehyde and quit allowing it.”
Wedincamp expects about 200 people at the meeting, many of them from her 1,400-member strong nonprofit watchdog group.
EPD’s assistant director Jim Ussery will make initial remarks and introduce Jane Hendricks, manager of the wastewater regulatory program, said EPD spokesman Kevin Chambers. Hendricks will present the draft permit, highlighting how it differs from the company’s previous regulatory limits.
Following her comments, citizens can make verbal comments, limited to three minutes each, or can submit written comments. A question and answer period will follow the comments.
The hearing is likely to be lengthy. Ussery has indicated he wants everyone wishing to comment to have the opportunity to do so.
EPD has received more than 500 written comments on the draft permit, Chambers said.