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The Jenkins County Times
Friday, March 31, 2023- Page 9
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Riverkeeper monitors Ogeechee
ahead of Hyundai boom Part 1
As industry booms in Coastal Georgia, a river guardian
prepares to protect the Ogeechee.
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Mary Landers, Special Contributor
for
The Times
I ran across this article recently and wanted to share it with our readers. Hyundai is coming to the
area in a few years and not only will it bring good jobs to our area, it could affect the river and creeks.
But, it seems the riverkeeper is preparing early for the big plant.
Electric vehicle production at the $5.5 billion Hyundai factory in Bryan County is still several years
away, but the Ogeechee Riverkeeper is already preparing to protect the river from its effects.
A few weeks ago the organization’s science and policy manager, Kris Howard, deployed the first
of three new water quality monitoring stations in the river basin. The idea is to establish the river’s
baseline qualities, pre-Hyundai factory and pre-Hyundai growth.
“We have them set for taking measurements every hour, just to get a good baseline,” Howard said as
he popped each of four tubular monitors into a homemade holder made of PVC pipe. “This one does
conductivity, so your salts in the water.” The other monitors measure pH, temperature and dissolved
oxygen.
The Ogeechee Riverkeeper is doing the monitoring because director Damon Mullis doesn’t trust
state regulators at the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to do it.
“EPD operates like customer service representatives for industry. I mean, they really do. I’ve seen it
firsthand,” he said. “When you hear Georgia is the best place to do business, that’s always what I think
about. I always think about the lax environment. I know that there’s more to it than that. It’s cheap
labor, it’s this, that or another, but one thing is, they can locate here and get relaxed environmental
permits.”
With his waders on Thursday, Howard slipped into the dark, swollen river. His destination: a cypress
tree that normally anchors the bank. But it had been raining and the river was up about three feet and
still rising. He hung the monitors on a pole by the tree. He’ll be back about once a month to download
their data.
The river suffered a large fish kill in 2011 that was linked to the King America Finishing textile
factory. That company’s successor, Milliken, continued to have difficulty meeting the requirements of
its permits and was fined repeatedly. It announced its closure last summer. Manufacturing ceased but
the company is still evacuating its treatment ponds, a process that should conclude over the next few
months, Mullis said. No other large manufacturer discharges into the Ogeechee, a free-flowing black
water river. The timing of Milliken’s exit allows for a baseline free of its pollution.
The riverkeeper plans another monitoring station above the wastewater treatment outfall on the
river and a third one to monitor stormwater runoff from the massive Hyundai plant into Black Creek,
a major tributary of the Ogeechee. Much of the site, which at 3,000 acres is about the size of Tybee
Island, will be covered in pavement or buildings that won’t allow rain to soak in.
We will continue the story in next weeks edition of The Jenkins County Times.
Uncle Roger
“When you hear
Georgia is the best
place to do business,
that’s always what I
think about. I always
think about the
lax environment. ’’
Says, Ogeechee
Riverkeeper, Damon
Mullis
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