The Ogeechee Riverkeeper has lost an effort to force the shutdown of unpermitted pollution from a Screven County textile processor.
In a judgement issued Wednesday, Spalding County Superior Court Judge Christopher C. Edwards found that the state’s top pollution regulator, Environmental Protection Division Director Judson Turner “acted reasonably under the circumstances and consistent with the provisions of the Georgia Water Quality Control Act” in allowing the discharge to continue.
Georgia law affords the director enforcement discretion, saying he may order a violator’s activity to cease but not that he must do so, Edwards ruled.
“The legislature and the Director are both authorized by law to make these ‘guns or butter’ economic decisions, balancing the externalities of pollution – our innocent children will swim in an ocean we are allowing to contain some small quantity of formaldehyde and other pollutants — against the benefits of industry — the parents of these same innocent children have jobs and out workers including brave firefighters have fire retardant clothing,” the order states.
In May 2011, the Ogeechee was the site of a fish kill that left 38,000 fish dead; all were discovered below King America Finishing’s discharge pipe. EPD’s follow-up investigation revealed a fire retardant processing line that had been operating for five years without a pollution permit.