Over 100 Turnout for Riverkeepers' meeting

40 Laurens Residents Join Riverkeepers

August 4, 2008
Stephanie Miller | Courier Herald Online

The Altamaha Riverkeepers have pledged to keep checking the Oconee River until all problems with the river appear to be gone, and to prove it the organization voted to add a Laurens County resident to its board of directors Saturday.

During the ninth annual meeting of the Altamaha Riverkeepers organization held Saturday at the Laurens County Sportsman's Club, Kim Tyler was elected as a board member of the organization. Tyler will draw daily water samples from the Oconee River to be tested by the Riverkeepers.

The Riverkeepers decided to hold its annual meeting in Laurens County to show their support for the concerns centered around the Oconee River. About 125 people from across the state attended the meeting and over 40 local residents joined the organization Saturday, said Constance Riggins, development director with the Altamaha Riverkeepers.

"All we want is for our river to be safe for our people to swim in and for the fish to be safe to eat," said state Rep. DuBose Porter, who was guest speaker for the meeting. "The fish may not be toxic. from what I've seen in pictures of the fish taken by the Sportsman's Club and the DNR something is wrong and out of balance."

Porter said those who are on the river daily know that something has changed. He told the group the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division and representatives of Auburn University would be on the Ocmulgee River taking samples today and will take samples from the Oconee River again Tuesday. It is believed they will compare the samples from the two rivers to try to determine more information about the "issues" with the livers of the fish taken from the Oconee River during the month of June. What those issues are has not been explained, but Fisheries Region Director Bert Deener said Thursday, "There were some issues with the liver (of the fish) we're trying to understand," he said. "Auburn still has to explain those."

Porter also thanked the Riverkeepers for putting Tyler on its board.

"It gives us that place at the table," he said, adding having the Oconee as part of the Altamaha watershed and protected by the Riverkeepers can only improve the quality of the Oconee River.

"That is important to us. It's important to our area of the state," he said. "We've got to really get our arms around what the problem is," he said, adding the quality and quantity of water is important to the entire state.

Porter told the crowd that the water plan plassed during the last legislative session was really not a water plan, because it was not based on water, but political lines.

"Water planning ought to be designated by where the water originates and flows and not by political lines," he said.

He told the group Laurens County has been moved to the Upper Oconee Planning District and that Walton County has requested to a similar move.

"If Walton County and Laurens County are included then the Oconee Planning District will more closely resemble the actual watershed of the Oconee River. That y'all is a huge, huge deal on our water quantity and quality on the Oconee," he said.

Holland took the floor before Porter to talk about the ongoing water samples that will be taken by Tyler.

"Kim will be taking water samples until," he said, adding that until means until they're no longer needed. "The state can't come in here one day and take water samples and tell you your river's OK."

Holland said the problems had been blamed on low-flowing shallow, warm water.

"When have you ever know of warm, shallow, clean water to hurt anything?," he said. "It don't happen."

He said he flew over the river last week and he was shocked at the obvious visible problems on the river, especially when he saw the run-off ponds at SP Newsprint.

"Just because they say its Ok, don't mean it's OK," he said of the state's claim that the river is safe.

"He held up jars of plastic and said it took him just a few minutes to fill the jars with plastic from the boil area of SP Newsprint. Then down below the boil at the rock pile the signs of plastic were obvious.

"That rock pile is completely littered with this stuff. There's no denying they're putting plastic back in the river," he said, adding he and Debra Shepherd are going to meet with SP Newsprint officials again and will determine if the company is in violation of the Riverkeeper's suit settlement agreement.

Holland also encouraged local residents to get behind the Sportsman's Club and the Riverkeepers for the sake of the river.

"Y'all as a group of people can create an atmosphere in Atlanta and DNR to get change," he said.

Others who spoke during the meeting were: Patsy Baker of the Keep Dublin Laurens Clean and Beautiful who told the group about the October 4 River's Alive Clean-up; Dennis Holder of the Wilkinson County Commission who told the group about Ball's Ferry State Park and how important the Oconee River is to the new park; and several others from clean water groups across the state.

Holland shows several people how to properly tear into a crab before his speech.