The Ogeechee Riverkeeper is appealing the state’s issuance of a water pollution permit for King America Finishing.
“For over six years, King America Finishing has illegally polluted the Ogeechee River,” said Dianna Wedincamp, Ogeechee Riverkeeper in a written statement.
“Tens of thousands of fish have died as a result of their illegal activity and the river downstream from them has been unsafe. The permit that the state issued allows this pollution to continue.”
GreenLaw, a Georgia environmental law firm, and Stack and Associates filed the appeal Friday on behalf of the Riverkeeper.
The permit was issued by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, whose spokesman Kevin Chambers declined to comment on the filing. Georgia law requires the matter to be heard and decided by an administrative law judge within 97 days.
A May 2011 fish kill left 38,000 fish dead in the black water stream, all of them below the outfall pipe for textile manufacturer King America Finishing. A subsequent investigation revealed that the factory’s flame retardant line had been operating without a permit for five years. The company was ordered to provide $1 million-worth of environmental projects on the river, an agreement the Ogeechee Riverkeeper found inadequate and improperly executed and which it is also challenging in court.
The state issued the new water permit Aug. 10, more than a year after the fish kill.
The appeal alleges that the water pollution permit issued by the EPD allows King America Finishing to continue to pollute the Ogeechee River.
“It’s not requiring any real significant changes,” said Don Stack, of Stack and Associates in Savannah.
Even some of the changes that may appear significant are not, said Stack, who cited the permit requirement that the wastewater flow from King America not exceed 10 percent of river flow.
“On its face that looks like an improvement until one realizes the fish kill occurred when the effluent was 3 percent of river flow,” Stack said.
King America Finishing issued a statement Friday saying the legal challenge would “delay the effectiveness of the new permit for up to several months.”
“King America Finishing is disappointed that its long effort to obtain this permit will be placed on hold while the permit’s conditions undergo scrutiny before an Administrative Law Judge,” the statement said in part.
The Riverkeeper argues that the permit issued to King America Finishing would be more effective with more stringent limits for ammonia and other chemicals that lower oxygen levels in the river. It seeks a ban on discharge of chemicals it terms toxic, such as formaldehyde.
“Ideally I feel like that pipe being out of river is what the citizens want and what we want,” Wedincamp said. “They need to go to a system similar to other facilities that reuse their wastewater. At this point they haven’t been trustworthy to do the right thing. Their discharge has been in violation repeatedly.
“They were in violation over five years and didn’t bother to get a permit. I don’t feel they’re trustworthy enough to have a discharge in the Ogeechee that’s safe for people and wildlife.”
ON THE WEB
To view the comments, visit www.greenlaw.org/ogeecheefishkill