Riverkeeper

Altamaha's Friend

July, 2005
by Liz Conroy
Flagpole

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood... won't you be my neighbor?" (Mr. Rogers)

Around and beyond the Athens and Atlanta area, some developers holler "property rights" and allow silt to wash off their property into the streams.

Fisherman James Holland supports property rights. He believes in property owners building on or working their land as they see fit - that is, until it's clear that what they are doing affects the rights of their neighbors, including the people living downstream. Sending silt and other pollutants down the river to where he and members of his community live and fish has proved to be more than downright unneighborly. It has deprived fellow Georgians of their livelihood, including Holland. He ended his commercial crabbing efforts due to water quality issues. And got mad enough to do something about it.

Holland and other local people formed Altamaha Riverkeeper (ARK), a nonprofit organization, in February of 1999. Their mission is to protect the waters flowing into the Altamaha River, so that fewer pollutants are coming downstream to damage the coast. In short, they aim to protect the whole Altamaha River watershed. This is a huge undertaking, since it involves one of the largest watersheds east of the Mississippi. The rivers they monitor include the Oconee, Ocmulgee and Ohoopee and the feeder stream tributaries which all flow into the Altamaha.

ARK is spread thin, but by visiting local communities and talking to concerned citizens, they enlist the help of those who want to protect their local waterways.

On Tuesday, Nov. 9, Holland spoke at the Oconee County Library about ARK. He was also there to offer his help.

An ex-Marine and former businessman, Holland looms large and minces no words. But he loves the rivers of Georgia and the wildlife on those waters, and his passion shows in the photos he has taken of the beauty of our waterways, and in contrast, of the damage done by construction, timbering, agriculture, sewage and industrial pollution.

At the Library, Holland pointed out that it's unrealistic to stop development unless it's actually in the wrong place. If it's in the "sorta right" place, it's going to go forward. Then the best action to take is to make sure that no laws are violated so that the waters aren't polluted and don't run red with the silt from those sites.

"Silt" is a four-letter word to Holland. For upstream developers, once the dirt washes off their property and away downstream, it's of little concern. After all, it's out of sight and out of mind. Yet, silt kills.

Since it's damaging to the aquatic life that communities downstream depend upon for their businesses, silt is a major concern among the various pollutants flowing down to coastal Georgians.

"Anybody here know what 'let's go muddin' means?" Holland asked as he described what happens to fish in rivers badly polluted by silt. "We'd take a hose to stir up all the mud from the bottom in places where there was fish. The fish would go to the top trying to get oxygen. And we'd just catch 'em with our hands."

He later explained how silt not only affects breathing, but fish can't see in silt-filled waters so it interferes with their feeding. It also interferes with their spawning, because the silt covers up their eggs.

"Downstream pays the price," he said. "Private property rights are one thing, but you shouldn't be allowed to do things on your property that negatively affect my rights."

As the spokesperson for ARK, Holland met with area residents the following day to check on sites under development. This included a visit to a site along the Epps Bridge Parkway near Wal-Mart. No stream buffers were left on this 42-acre site after it had been totally cleared for development.

After this site visit, Holland spoke to a small group of citizens in Watkinsville over lunch. He said he would issue a complaint to the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) in Athens. As the official Altamaha Riverkeeper, it's an important part of his job to request an EPD inspection upon witnessing possible violations of Georgia's Erosion and Sedimentation Act.

"Why," he asked, "would you flood me out? I'm your neighbor!" He gave the group an example of what such poor development practices are doing to him and his community.

"Take two glasses," he said. "Fill one half full of sand and the other glass full of water. When you dump in all that sand or silt into the water, the water spills out. In real life, that water is going onto someone's land, property and home."

Flooding is also exacerbated by the destruction of wetlands, another area of extreme concern to Holland. At the lunch meeting, he emphasized how important wetlands are, not only for filtering out pollutants from inflowing waters, but also for absorbing the overflow from nearby creeks as a form of natural flood control. He described the growing interest in wildlife and bird watching in wetland areas and how it's helping the economy in southern Georgia. But the destruction of wetlands and water pollution damages the tourist/ birdwatching industry just as it destroys the fishing/ crabbing industry there.

"Our downstream politicians need to come up and talk with upstream politicians," Holland said. "After all, government is supposed to be for the people. Instead, it seems that government is actually for the corporations. So if you have complaints as local citizens, let me know. Keep me in the loop, so I can follow up on those complaints if necessary."

(James Holland can be reached by email: rholland@altamahariverkeeper.org, phone: 912-437-8164, address: P.O. Box 2642, Darien, GA 31305)

Liz Conroy writes about the environment for Flagpole.