Consequences...

Another day of cold and rain in St. Marys, and I get to stay indoors again and report to you some more stuff about our River. For those of you who fell asleep reading my last post, I do apologize. As many of you pointed out, it was quite a tedious read, i.e. history, science, corporate dealings, government regulation, etc. I am generally not a detail person but continue to learn that the detail sometimes is critical to a better understanding of the existing and impeding threats to our River. After all, as my wife so aptly points out, the devil is in the detail. So...please bear with me.

 

As a follow up to the e coli bacteria test results and septic system issues in Browntown, last night's BBQ dinner sponsored by the St. Marys River Management Committee was a resounding success. The goal was to educate the local community on the e coli test results and septic system failures in their neighborhood, the potential health threats to their community and the River, and to inform them about the availability of resources to help deal with septic system failures. Expecting maybe 40 people on what was forecast to be a rainy, cold night in the outdoor picnic pavilion, more than 70 folks showed up to eat BBQ and hear what the SMRMC members, UGA River Basin officials, and the County/District Public Health Department representative had to say. A lively discussion followed indicating that those present learned far more than they knew about septic system problems and related health issues to their river and sources of fresh water. Many of these folks have been born and raised on the River and are avid fishermen enjoying the sport and eating the fish from the River. So...many voiced concern. Approximately 20 signed up for more information.To early to tell, but hopefully this will translate into action.

Something else...and, you are not going to believe this. A proposal for our neighboring Satilla River by Southern Ionics, a private corporation intent on removing more natural resource from the Satilla River basin, which, incidently, shares our St. Marys River basin upstream. Already number 8 on the GA River Coalition's 12 dirtiest GA rivers of 2012, the Satilla will be home to a six story, floating zircon mining operation. Yes, you heard correctly, a six story, 72 foot high, floating industrial barge designed to move about the river, mine for and remove zircon from the sand deposits in the basin, and refine for industrial uses.

As my friend says, "you gotta be freakin' kidding me". This is like right out of Star Wars. It's almost unbelievable, if it were not for a history of commercial enterprises removing natural resources from the planet and returning (dumping) its byproducts (industrial waste) back into our fragile ecosystem. Not to get too technical, but the process of refining zircon requires the use of chlorine and the waste must be stored in holding ponds too toxic to return the river. So...what happens to the land, most assuredly somewhere in the river basin, where these holding ponds are located? ...another super toxic waste site in the making. Help!!!

Fortunately, Clay Montague, Interim Satilla Riverkeeper with considerable experience in ecology management, the Southern Environmental Law Center, and GA DNR is on top of this project, along with Southern Ionic which as excellent reputation for environmental sensitivity and mitigation. Our job is to monitor their progress and to hold their feet to the fire, as may be necessary.

A common thread to many of the threats mentioned about, is just another example of the human species taking from the planet for its own use and returning the left over waste to our fragile ecosystem poisoning our land and fresh water sources for all of nature. I had the opportunity to enjoy a sunset paddle on the Okefenokee Swamp several weeks ago. A pristine, one of a kind, wilderness that serves as the head waters of the St. Marys and Suwanee Rivers and is fortunately managed by the National Park Service and off limits to commercial development. A fun thing to do is carry a flash light for the return trip and shine the light into the dark night of the swamp as one quietly paddles home. The red eyes of the gators and white eyes of the frogs and spiders and other creatures of the swamp are peering at us and seeming to say, we are watching you.

By the way, the St. Marys River is not on the list of the 12 dirtiest rivers of Georgia for 2012 recently published by Georgia Water Coalition. http://www.equities.com/news/headline-story?dt=2012-11-15&val=716893&cat=material   Congratulations! Our committment must be to keep it that way.

More Threats to the St. Marys River Basin

I love rainy days.  Aside from watching the plants smile, it affords me time to catch up on reading and writing.  Unfortunately, I have been learning that our River is under some grave new threats.

Many thanks to Mark Lyon, a native of the upper St. Marys River, a resident of Baker County on the Florida side of the River, and an environmental activist, for bringing this threat to my attention.  As observed by Mark, turns out Jacksonville Electric (JEA) has been moving many truck loads of coal ash over the state line into GA and dumping it as road base on Rayonier owned property roads in rural Charlton County. Rayonier's property borders the St. Marys River and the roadways being covered are 1-2 miles from the River directly impacting the watershed and several tributaries which flow by the roadway through the basin and into the River. JEA calls the coal ash material EZBase, which is simply the by-product of their coal fired electric generating plant in north Jacksonville. Unfortunately for JEA, the Florida Department of Natural Resources has found coal ash to contaminate drinking and surface water with various toxic metals and has prohibited its use in the State. So JEA, in agreement with Rayonier, itself a huge polluter of air and water from its paper mills in SE US, is moving its waste material to Georgia. Worse, despite the environmental policies of its neighboring State of Florida, the GA Department of Natural Resources has provided JEA special permission to continue this practice within close proximity to wetlands and to the St. Marys River, in what appears to be a clear violation of the Clean Water Act.

Currently, coal ash is not included on the EPA's list of hazardous materials and has left it up to individual states to regulate. Florida has elected to do so, Georgia has not. Consequently, coal fired electric utility plants are having more and more difficulty disposing of their coal ash waste material. Nobody wants it. So...send it to GA and make sure its dumped near a river.There are many links that document the dangers of coal ash which are easily googled. For example:

http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2010-09-15/story/jea-spends-millions-taking-back-ash-stored-georgia

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-03-28/story/jea-ash-giveaways-raising-state-worries

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-05-09/story/epa-coal-review-could-spark-ezbase-questions

http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/fl-coal-ash-factsheet-0812.pdf

One in particular stands out as testiment to the potential dangers of coal ash in our fresh water supply and this occurred just across our border.

http://www.cleanwateraction.org/feature/ezbase-tip-coal-ash-iceberg  Thanks to Alex Kearns for researching this article. Oddly enough, JEA refused to remove all the coal ash arguing that the homeowner put it too close to water and wetlands. So, even JEA admits to the hazards of coal ash in close proximity to water.

 

So...why were we not aware of JEA requesting and receiving permission from GA DNR to go forward with their plan. Turns out that GA DNR does not digitize permission requests meaning such requests and granting of such variances are not available by the web to the public for comment.  To gain access, one must drive to Atlanta to obtain a hard copy. Many thanks to Sydney Bacchus, Ph.D. Hydroecologist and environmental activist for obtaining a copy, or we would not be aware of much of this information.  As she points out, DNR must be required to demand all applications for and subsequent followup of variance requests and deliberations be submitted to DNR in electronic format and published on the Web so as to offer citizen groups timely access to information. 

 

And, that is not all. The St. Marys River Management Committee, through a grant from UGA, has tested the viability of existing septic systems in the Browntown area which borders several tributaries that flow into the St. Marys River and is located just upriver from Kingsland in Camden County. Turns out, test results during recent rainy periods showed presence of e Coli bacteria in the drainage ditches of some of the neighborhoods.  This drainage flows directly into the River through several tributaries and can easily effect water quality of the River. E Coli bacteria can cause cholera and other serious illness. Improper handling of human waste is the culprit. Outdated or poorly maintained septic systems is the cause.  Installation of new septic systems or rehabilitation of old, worn out systems is the fix.  Unfortunately, individual homeowners must step forward for the fix to happen. In fact, the grant provides funds to help restore damaged or out dated systems. An educational program has been organized by the SMRMC to educate the local community on the dangers of poorly maintained septic systems and what fixes are available to help those that come forward.

 

The presence of e coli has considerable consequences and many are unaware of these problems. It's interesting how many people still believe that river water simply washes "away" contaminants and is replaced by fresh water from upstream. Little regard for what happens down stream.  Not their problem. Unfortunately, it's every ones problem. Until a bunch of neighborhood kids become infected with e coli after swimming or playing in contaminated surface or River water, this problem may not have an easy fix. Enforcement may be the ultimate solution for the resistant few, and no one appears to have the stomach for that.

 

 

 

After the Rains...

I was asked today how the recent rains have effected the River and its wildlife. It looks "dirty", like the wash from my prop is almost black from mud. I kind of smiled and responded, the River is the cleanest I have ever seen it. Its color is the reason our river is called a blackwater river. The recent rains and flooding have made it even darker.

A friend and I took a cruise up river last evening and, sure enough, the wake from the prop revealed the rich color of a black water river, like a cup of coffee without milk. While it's blacker now because of the recent rains, its color does not come from mud or silt washed into the river, but rather the tannins from dissolved pine needles and pine cones from Georgia pine forrests, through which the St. Marys River and its many tributaries flow. The rain and flooding have deposited more pine neddles into the river making for more dissolved tannins.

The actual effect of tannins on life in the river is debatable, however, the early sailors from Europe filed their bilges with the tannin waters as their fresh water supply. Turns out the tannins or tannic acid maintained the water's freshness for drinking on the sailor's long voyage home. So, sailing vessels traveled far up the St. Marys River, unloaded their ballast, and replaced the weight with valuable drinking water with tannins, in preparation for their long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

As we made our way upriver, we ancored the boat at our favorite spot by the bluff to cool off with a swim. Despite, or perhaps because of, the black-ness of the water, the freshness and feel of the river water was simply awesome.  I was reminded of the many swims I have enjoyed in the fresh water springs in Florida. As I struggled to maintain position in the strong current and enjoy the coolness and freshness of the water just a wee bit longer, I wondered what it would be like to take a swallow, as did the sailors of yesteryear.  No longer able to fight the current as it rushed to the sea, I re-entered the boat and could not help but notice the lack of any signs on my body of the black-ness in the water, just the refreshing feel of the water evaporating from my body in the breezes of the early evening sunlight. I felt totally rejuvinated, unlike any feel one might have from a swim in chlorinated water or a dip in the surf.

So...no adverse effects on wildlife.  Example: several days before I was privelged to witness two manatees copulating by the bank of the Gilman boathouse property just below the dock.  What a sight!  I cheered them on.  I don't think they noticed, and, ye, we do need more manatees. So...life continues in our "river of life".

     

Blessings and Vigilance Pay Off

Our last few weeks of rain, including the precipitation brought ashore by Beryl, has been an enormous blessing. According to NOAA Weather, during the last 90 days, the St. Marys river basin has received 18 inches of much needed precipitation with 14 inches in the past 30 days. With continuing severe drought conditions looming on the horizon, low river flow volumes, and wildfire dangers worse than last summer, we may have dodged a bullet, at least in the near term. Thank you rain gods. Maybe paddling the Okefenokee is a real possibility this summer.

As Chair of the St. Marys EarthKeepers' RiverWatch Committee, my purpose for this blog is to apprise you of issues threatening the health and welfare of our River. Thanks to the vigilance of the St. Marys Earthkeepers and others, Miocene, a Texas-based company, was forced to withdraw its request to remove up to 355,00 gallons of water per day from the upper St. Marys River. The company's intention was to chemically remove the tannins from our River to produce fertilizer and return the treated water back into the River. Tannins are the decomposed remnants of pine needles and is the basis  upon which the St. Marys River and many others are classified as black water rivers. Miocene's refusal to divulge the chemical by-products of the tannin extraction process released back into the River was its undoing. While the battle with Miocene may not yet be over, withdrawal of their application is a near term victory.

But threats still exist. Recently, a Jacksonville utility company requested permission to remove 150,000 gallons of water daily from the Florida aquifer to meet increased power demand from its growing customer base. Unfortunately, the Florida aquifer is part of the same ground water system that originates in the Appalachian Mountains. The water from this aquifer system bubbles up forming the swamp of the Okefenokee, which then becomes the head waters of the St. Marys River. Drawing out water directly from the aquifer downstream will clearly have effects on volume and flow of the Swamp and the River upstream. Are we now witnessing the beginnings of our own “water wars” similar to the ongoing battles between Florida, Alabama and Georgia over water rights of the Chattahoochee River? We need to be vigilant.

As a result of increased private land development, “erosion” of the Clean Water Act (CWA) - passed by Congress in 1972 to protect our health and environment by reducing pollution in streams, lakes, rivers, wetlands and other waterways - is becoming a growing threat to our pristine river. Case and point: about 30 miles up river from St. Marys waterfront is a peninsula of land jutting into the River from the Georgia side known as Cabbage Bend. Because the land floods periodically, it qualifies as wetland and, therefore, is (or should be) protected by the CWA. The owner applied to the EPA for an exemption from the CWA on the basis that the road is intended to support silvaculture (logging): a permissible activity under the CWA. However, initial analysis of the property and roadway by county, state and federal officials determined that the road was far wider and more substantially built than necessary for typical logging activity, and that the existing harvest-quality timber on the peninsula had far less value than the actual cost of building the road,. It was suspected that the design and layout of the road was intended to withstand periodic flooding and for daily travel to and from future river front homes. Despite these observations, the EPA appears prepared to grant the exemption because the intended purpose qualifies as an allowable activity. We now run the danger of this road being washed into the River as the peninsula floods, causing harmful silt build up down stream directly effecting water quality and wildlife habitat, exactly what the CWA was intended to prohibit. In my opinion, this should be considered a clear violation of the CWA.

On the National front, The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed agency guidance that will clarify which waters are covered under the Clean Water Act as “waters of the United States.” Currently, millions of acres of wetlands and streams that recharge aquifers, help retain floodwaters, provide important fish and wildlife habitat, and provide clean water for iconic systems like the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes are at risk. Also at stake are programs to restore the Everglades and coastal Louisiana. As these waters are polluted and diminished, their tremendous ecological and public health benefits are lost, as well.

Also reflective of the growing anti-regulatory, anti-governement atmosphere in Washington, Section 110 of the HR 5325 attempts to undermine our clean water future by blocking the Army Corps of Engineers and EPA Clean Water Guidance and their anticipated rulemaking. It also perpetuates a confusing regulatory status quo. The Moran-Dingell amendment strikes Section 110, allowing the Army Corps of Engineers to finalize and implement the much-needed Clean Water Act guidance.

This is an important call to action. Please call, email, tweet, or facebook your representative and urge him or her to VOTE YES ON THE MORAN-DINGELL AMENDMENT TO STRIKE SECTION 110 OF HR 5325 and safeguard America’s clean water legacy. Telephone numbers for Members of Congress can be obtained by calling (202) 224-3121. Please let Rachel Dawson at National Wildlife Federation (dawsonr@nwf.org, 202-797-6625) know if you have contacted your Representative and if there is any related feedback.

We must be vigilant to actions, both local and Federal, that threaten our River. We can not trust others to do it for us. They don't always have the public and the environment's best interests in mind. We must be proactive and knowledgeable of these threats and prepared to take action as necessary. We have and will make a difference, and we need your help. Please stay informed

Our River is Alive

As Chair ot the RiverWatch committee of the St. Marys EarthKeepers, my purpose for initiating the RiverWatch blog is as follows. We, in St. Marys, enjoy a river unique to the East coast of the US. It is a natural, pristine, and mostly untouched body of water with head waters in the Okeefenokee Swamp. The fresh waters of the Swamp are fueled by a deep, underground aquifer originating in the Appalachian Mountains and resurfacing at the Okeefenokee. Unlike so many other rivers, the St. John in Florida as an example, the St. Marys River remains void of upstream power plants, industry, municipal waste disposal, and agricultural run-off. But threats remain, and we need to be vigilant so as to protect our "River of Life".

Through this blog I hope to inform our community about matters regarding the health and welfare of the St. Marys River while also sharing some of my "up close and personal" experiences. My name is Rick Frey. I'm a Georgia and Florida Master Naturalist, a retired science teacher, a Board member of the St. Marys EarthKeepers and an avid river-lover.

While paddling the St. Marys River one early evening with friend and co-owner of Up The Creek outfitters, Jennifer Kroener, we were again reminded just how alive our River is. As we paddled the waters near the salt marsh just west of Lang's Marina West, we observed with much joy and curiosity a juvenile otter the size of a golden retriever puppy frolicking on the water's edge.  She was either completely oblivious to our presence or too young to be fearful of humans. We lingered for several minutes to take in this very special moment.

Upon returning to the boat ramp, we encountered a man and his young daughter enjoying the River. Recently relocated from San Diego, he talked with amazement about the two young black tip sharks and one bonnet shark he observed recently in the River. As we talked, a family of otters swam downriver under the dock at the boat ramp. His daughter and some passersby excitedly followed the otter family movements as they ended up on the Park Service's floating dock for all to see. A rare event, indeed.

I love paddling the River. Movement can be silent and slow so as not to scare off wildlife, and  wildlife is plentiful on our River. In a kayak, one is so close to the water and moving so quietly that you feel at one with nature and the environment. I am challenged to see how close I can get to that great white heron before she flys off. We, as the human species, most times forget that we are a part of nature, just one member of one big family here on this planet. We need to be reminded of this from time to time. Paddling is a wonderful way of keeping in touch with that experience and our unique responsibility as one of many species living on Planet Earth.

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