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SUSTAINABILITY
Green lobbying under the Gold Dome
Okefenokee
Swamp Day at
the Gold Dome.
ABOVETHE
WATERLINE
Sally Bethea
The Georgia
State Capitol is
not a comfortable
or easy place to
advocate on behalf
of nature—be it
rivers, mountains,
swamps or the
coast. I know this
from often painful
and frustrating personal experience. Every
winter, for more than two decades until
retirement, I put on my business suit,
pearls, and heels and joined the legislative
circus in the cavernous capitol hallways,
where seating is limited and the floors are
cold, hard marble.
Lobbyists hang out on the third floor
of the building, watching televisions
that show the activity in each legislative
chamber (House and Senate). This makes
them easily accessible to legislators, who
periodically dash out of their chamber
doors to ask for advice or meet with
constituents. Public interest lobbyists
who advocate for the environment,
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MARCH 2023
healthcare, families, education, and other
progressive causes can be found on the
north side of the third floor. Business
lobbyists dominate the south side of the
building with its shoe-shine stand—a
deep, philosophical (and relative
compensation) chasm between them.
Political Landscape
On behalf of Chattahoochee
Riverkeeper, I worked with conservation
colleagues to pass good environmental
bills and kill bad ones; the latter often
took up more of our time than the
former. In the 1990s and early 2000s, it
was possible to find bipartisan support
from leading Democrats and Republicans
for some of our legislative proposals.
Sadly, this bipartisan alignment is less
common today.
For the past twenty years, the political
landscape has been dominated by one
party in the governor’s office, both
legislative chambers, and key committee
chairs, importantly including natural
resources. The largely anti-environmental
stance on the part of the Republican
majority has made lobbying for a healthy
environment more difficult. Despite the
formidable challenges, the Georgia Water
Coalition (gawater.org), which celebrated
its twentieth-anniversary last year,
continues to deliver results, even if some
of them are years in the making.
The GWC was established to stop the
attempted transformation of Georgia’s
water into a marketable commodity—
allocated not according to need or plan
but to the agreements between willing
buyers and sellers seeking profits. That
horribly misguided idea was defeated
by the coalition and its allies, notably
local government officials. Today, GWC
members adopt legislative priorities
each year to address critical threats to
state waters—in addition to opposing
attempts to roll back environmental
protections.
During the current 40-day legislative
session, scheduled to end on March
29, the GWC is actively supporting
two initiatives: a bill to protect the
Okefenokee Swamp from mining, and
anticipated legislation to strengthen the
regulation of “soil amendments” (read:
animal waste and sewage sludge) applied
to farmland.
Protecting Georgia’s ‘Wild Heart’
On Feb. 8, Governor Kemp and
legislators proclaimed Okefenokee
Swamp Day in Georgia before an
enthusiastic crowd of swampers,
including mayors, country
commissioners, farmers, and
businesspeople interested in eco-tourism.
Two people-size alligators waved from
capitol balconies, while several real
swamp critters (and their handlers)
tolerated the attention of legislators and
lobbyists.
If it passes, the HB 71 Okefenokee
Protection Act (legis.ga.gov/
legislation/63631) will help safeguard the
world-renowned, 438,000-acre wetland
from industrial mining proposals that
threaten irreversible, negative impacts.
The legislation would prohibit the state
from issuing future permits to conduct
surface mining operations on the highest
elevations ofTrail Ridge: the prehistoric
barrier island that helped create the
swamp by holding back its waters. HB
71 has been assigned to the House
Natural Resource Committee, chaired
by Rep. Lynn Smith (R-Newnan). For
nearly two decades, she has regularly
stifled pro-environment legislation. More
worrisome are the highly-paid, corporate
lobbyists hired by Twin Pines to oppose the
bill.
The motivating factor for the
Okefenokee Protection Act is a pending,
highly flawed application by Alabama-
based Twin Pines Minerals LLC (a proven
bad actor in other projects) to mine heavy
mineral sands (epd.georgia.gov/twin-
pines) near the Okefenokee; this specific
application would not be affected by HB
71. The Georgia Environmental Protection
Division (read the governor) will decide
this year whether or not the risky Twin
Pines project will be approved. It must be
stopped.
Streams of Chicken Waste
Last summer, gray, bubbling water was
discovered in a tributary to the Little River
in northeast Georgia, upstream of a massive
fish kill. The pollution was traced back to
a farm that had, in just six weeks, accepted
more than two hundred loads of “soil
amendments” — waste from a pet food plant
and a milk facility — and dumped the liquid
gunk onto hay fields and into a pond.
In Georgia, soil amendment is the
term state officials use, euphemistically,
to describe animal waste (mostly chicken
blood and guts) and industrial sewage
sludge; they also like to call it “repurposed
material.” Applied to dry soils and in
limited quantities, this liquid waste can
improve soil condition; however, that is
rarely the outcome in Georgia. Most of
the material is being dumped in massive
quantities on farm fields. Neighbors must
contend with unbearable odors and swarms
of flies. When it rains, and often even when
it doesn’t rain, the waste flows into nearby
streams.
Although it’s responsible for
managing how these materials are used
as soil additives, Georgia’s Department
of Agriculture is not doing enough to
ensure the sludge is kept out of nearby
waterways. Local officials, citizens, and the
GWC are pushing lawmakers to give local
governments more authority in managing
the waste disposal; greater transparency is
also needed. Not surprisingly, Big Chicken
— a dominant player at the Gold Dome — is
not keen on any additional regulation or
oversight.
Let your state legislators know what
you think about these issues using this
link georgia.gov/contact-state-legislators.
Provide comments to the Georgia EPD
about the Twin Pines mining proposal at
twinpines.comment@dnr.ga.gov.
RoughDraftAtlanta.com