Wanted: Someone to defend region's coastal waterways

By TERRY DICKSON
The Times-Union

August 20, 2006

BRUNSWICK - Altamaha Riverkeeper James Holland's watery workplace rises in North Georgia and flows to the coast.

The Darien-based Riverkeeper organization is trying raise funds to put the sand, marshes and saltwater portions of the 14,000-square-mile Altamaha watershed in someone else's hands, freeing Holland to concentrate upstream.

HITTING HOME
For more information, call the Altamaha Riverkeeper at (912) 437-8164 or visit www.altamahariverkeeper.org

The organization is raising money to create the Altamaha Coastkeeper, which would monitor and advocate for the coastal environment of Glynn and McIntosh counties and upstream along the Altamaha to the point the tidal influence ends near the Wayne County line, said Deborah Sheppard, executive director of Altamaha Riverkeeper.

The Malcolm Fraser Foundation is offering $50,000 to match contributions, she said.
The coastkeeper would remain, at least for the time being, under the auspices of the Altamaha Riverkeeper. As the riverkeeper, Holland is the face of the organization, and the designation of a coastkeeper would provide a face to represent coastal issues.

It is important to protect the coastal zones because the marshes and their inhabitants - especially oysters - filter sediments and toxins from the waters, Sheppard said. The field work and advocacy roles are more work than one person can do effectively, she said.

"It will help me tremendously to not have to work the coast and the inland,'' said Holland, who has been taking pictures of silted areas in wetlands, collecting water samples and talking to people along the Altamaha and its tributaries for seven years.

George Rozier throws a cast net into a creek off Homer Wilson Boulevard. A proposed coastkeeper would monitor the environment of the creek and other waterways in Glynn and McIntosh counties. TERRY DICKSON/The Times-Union

Holland, a former crabber, said he prefers to continue upstream, where he has developed relationships over the years as he ferreted out sources of pollution such as industrial and municipal waste treatment sites and runoff from development.

Someone needs to be on the ground and on the water in Coastal Georgia looking for problems and making sure the regulatory agencies address them, he said.

As much as people like to complain about treatment plants and industry, individual irresponsibility can add up to big problems, Holland said. Perhaps no spot is worse than Homer Wilson Boulevard, a dirt causeway in Brunswick where people dump bottles, cans, bags, wrappers and at least one bathroom sink.

One of the empty beer bottles came in handy. George Rozier filled it with water and sat it on the edge of the bank as a sort of tidal gauge while he fished there Wednesday.

"If they wanted to, they could stop all of us from coming in here fishing. People don't care,'' he said.
The shrubby growth along the bank was filled with trash.

"People that'll do stuff like that,'' Rozier said, "imagine what their houses look like.''

The coastkeeper, whoever it turns out to be, can use the eyes and noses of people to find problems and pass them on, Holland said.

Development is bumping up against nature across coastal Georgia, including in Darien, where condos now sit on marsh. TERRY DICKSON/The Times-Union.

"We need the citizens helping. They can smell it,'' he said of pollution.

Riverkeepers sometimes go after the regulatory agencies if they feel permits have been wrongly issued or environmental laws aren't being enforced. Still, Susan Shipman, director of the state Coastal Resources Division, said there is room for another watchdog.

"There's enough work. Everybody needs help. But is it going to mean more lawsuits?'' Shipman said.
People have asked why the Altamaha Riverkeeper delves into issues outside the watershed. The short answer is, if it doesn't, nobody will.

Coastal Resources and the Riverkeeper organizations along the coast have common interests and can be partners in the stewardship of the natural resources, Shipman said.

"There just aren't enough people to go around,'' including in her office, Shipman said. "If they're spread too thin, I feel their pain."

The Altamaha Coastkeeper already is licensed through the Irvington, N.Y.-based Waterkeeper Alliance, a grass-roots organization that protects the names and missions of environmental groups trying to clean up or protect waterways. It started with the Hudson Riverkeeper and now includes hundreds of riverkeepers, baykeepers, creekkeepers and others.