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P.O. Box 2642 | Darien, GA 31305 | Tel 912-437-8164 | FAX 912-437-8765 | |
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P.O. Box 2642 | Darien, GA 31305 | Tel 912-437-8164 | FAX 912-437-8765 | |
| Home | About Us | River News | Wildlife | Advocacy | Education | Events & Meetings | Resources | Links | Newsletters | ||
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"It's Your River"By James Holland, Altamaha RiverkeeperI Don't Eat Fish Out of My River was the title for an article I wrote that was published in the Outdoor Adventures Magazine in February 2003. The idea for the article came to me from a conversation during an annual deer stew cookout at Mr. Roy Malone's place, Goose Hollow on Rocky Creek, in Laurens County. During the evening cuisine of very fine venison, I talked with a young gentleman who declared, "I don't eat fish out of my river!" He explained that he had not quit fishing but had turned into a catch and release fisherman because he thought the Oconee River in the Dublin area was polluted.Over the past nine months, my work as the Altamaha Riverkeeper has taken me back to the Oconee River in the Dublin area and my observations and concerns have prompted me to write this article. I think it will give you a little insight as to why someone would say " I don't eat fish out of my river." Fishermen and women have keen senses about an area where they grew up fishing. Even if they don't know exactly what is wrong with their river, they often see and smell things in the water that don't seem to be quite right. Many people have enjoyed fishing in a favorite spot for years but when they catch fish with deformities and lesions they know they shouldn't eat their catch because the fish might make them or someone in their family sick. It is a painful realization. I wonder if the young person knew how sick some parts of the Oconee River near Dublin really are. The 303(D) list published by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division lists all the impaired streams in Georgia. The Oconee River has a section in and near Dublin on the 303(D) list for impaired streams. The impaired section begins near the U. S. Highway 80 Bridge and extends down to about the mouth of Turkey Creek. It is on the list because the river water exceeds the safe standards for human contact with fecal coliform bacteria, a type of bacteria derived from the intestines of warm blooded animals, such as, birds, humans, house pets and farm animals. It generally gets transported to our creeks and rivers through storm water run off. Other sources are leaking sewer lines, septic systems, sewer spills, manholes and lift stations. Safe contact for humans and fecal coliform bacteria is 200 colonies per 100-mls water. Water levels with high fecal bacteria increase the odds of having other more serious life threatening pathogens, such as cholera, traveling with it. As we all know, many third world countries have outbreaks of disease due to high levels of bacteria caused by human and animal waste. I am basing my writing on personal observations through work as the Altamaha Riverkeeper. I document my writing through photographs, video, and water sample analysis, although my samples are not official samples but indicator samples. My work on the Oconee River as the Altamaha Riverkeeper began about three years ago when I received a complaint about a school sewer pond on U.S. Highway 80. The complaint came from a citizen of Laurens County and I responded by collecting water samples on two different occasions. I collected water samples for fecal coliform bacteria from the discharge water that led down through the woods to Shaddock Creek which discharges into the Oconee River upstream from the Laurens County Sportsman Club. One sample showed to be in excess of two million plus colonies of fecal coliform bacteria per 100 mls. water. The other sample was close behind with an indicated 1.8 million colonies per 100 mls water. Local officials cooperated with the Altamaha Riverkeeper and cleaned up this nasty situation. Currently the three schools that were discharging wastewater into the sewer pond now pipe their wastewater to the East Dublin waste water system. The next occasion I had to do Riverkeeper work in Laurens County was from a citizen request to take water quality samples from the water in Bay Branch, a tributary of Big Creek, a tributary to the Oconee River above Dublin. I collected water samples from Bay Branch for nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) and fecal coliform bacteria. High nutrient loads in streams often create harmful algae blooms that can lead to low dissolved oxygen (d/o). Consequently, these same high nutrient loads are the culprits that can lead to fish kills and fish lesions. Some of the samples at Bay Branch showed levels for fecal coliform bacteria that were much too high for safe human contact and the nutrient samples at Bay Branch were the highest counts I've ever recorded! I do not know if Bay Branch has been cleaned up or not. I understand the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may have some concerns with Bay Branch and the water quality in that stream. In January of this year, a local Dublin citizen took me to an area called Soap Creek, a tributary that receives treated wastewater from the Dublin Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP). It didn't take but about a second to figure why this stream is called Soap Creek. The pipe area really got my attention. The foam around the discharge pipe was at least two feet thick in spots. Discharge permits prohibit foam effluent from industrial or municipal wastewater discharge pipes in more than trace amounts. What disturbed me was what I could not see, the cause of the foam. Since I had never observed this amount of foam around a discharge pipe, I was concerned there might be a problem internally at the sewage treatment plant. I learned later that the Dublin WPCP sends most of its treated wastewater to SP News Print to be recycled through their paper recycling system. The WPCP introduces alum, a water-softening agent, into the wastewater due to the hardness of the water because if the water is too hard SP Newsprint can't use it. Alum also has another name, aluminum sulphate in which in this case alum has the trace metal aluminum component. It is my understanding that alum is the agent causing the water to have so much foam. The only time I observed huge amounts of foam was during a period that the SP News Print Company wasn't receiving the water from the Dublin WPCP. After observing the foam I started taking a closer look at the Oconee River downstream from the U.S. Highway 80 Bridge. I learned there were four areas authorized for discharge treated wastewater in the Oconee River in that area. In addition, at least one home appeared to be sending unauthorized wastewater directly into the river. I believe the local health authority has since cleaned up the home discharge. Shortly after I first observed Soap Creek, the river flooded, so I wasn't able to make further observations for a while. After the flood waters receded I returned to Soap Creek and was stunned to find that something had apparently happened during the time the river was flooded. There was an awful stench inside the creek area and condoms were hanging in limbs of a tree that had fallen over into the creek. Not only were there condoms but also other paper materials in the tree limbs and in the creek area. The creek banks were covered with a dirty brown substance from the pipe area all the way to the mouth of the stream where it entered the Oconee River. There were also clumps of gray or brownish looking material floating everywhere in the river. I documented the floating pollution inside Soap Creek for approximately three consecutive weeks as it made its way out to the Oconee River. After this story broke in the Macon Telegraph newspaper, the City of Dublin sent in a prisoner work detail and removed all the trees on the banks of Soap Creek. It was obvious that raw sewage had entered Soap Creek from somewhere .The Altamaha Riverkeeper talked to the Dublin City Officials about river conditions. They disclaimed any knowledge of how the pollution got there but said there were rumors about home septic tank pumping trucks dumping unauthorized sewage in the county. The raw sewage in the Oconee and its origin is a problem and it must be stopped. The bigger picture is that the Oconee River took another hit. We are talking about a section of the river that is already on the impaired streams list for fecal coliform bacteria and millions upon millions of colonies of fecal bacteria were introduced directly into the already sick river. During the summer of this year, I received a complaint from fishermen about small pieces of plastic tangling their fishing lines so bad they couldn't fish. I asked where the incident took place and they said "the boil", an area of an under water wastewater discharge pipe. The normal procedure for the Altamaha Riverkeeper is when I receive a complaint I make a site visit to the area in question. When I investigated the site, I learned the pipe is a permitted authorized discharge belonging to SP News Print, a newspaper recycling plant. The boil is located approximately one mile downstream from Brick Yard Landing on the East Dublin side of the Oconee River. I investigated the pipe for a number of weeks documenting, as the fisherman had reported, small pieces of plastic materials in the water around this pipe. I also documented what appeared to be the same type plastic materials lodged on tree limbs downstream from the pipe. I also took the local newspaper and television channel to the pipe and they documented the same type plastic materials. Due to an ongoing discussion between ARK and SP News Print, I will not go into any further details about this site. See a photo profile of this site >>> The Georgia State Water Quality Control Act sets the water use classification for the Oconee River for "fishing, propagation of fish, shellfish, game and other aquatic life." At no place in the Georgia Water Quality Control Act does it say the Oconee River is listed as "Swimmable". Yet, we see people swimming and wading in these waters quite frequently. Two years ago a family lost a young son to a water borne ameba that had turned into a "super bug" after eating waste material from either animals or humans. As your Altamaha Riverkeeper, a large component of my job is to report my findings in the waters of this mighty watershed. This is your river and it apparently is being treated by some, probably a very few, as a method to dispose of unwanted waste. I do not blame people for not eating the fish out of this section of the Oconee River, nor do I blame those that no longer fish in what they believe to be polluted waters. So, the young man's statement: "I don't eat fish out of my river" makes a lot of sense. My observations and investigation in this area reinforce that he knew what he was talking about and common sense tells you there is a problem in the Oconee River near Dublin. This section of the river and some of its local tributaries have been some of the dirtiest, if not the dirtiest waters I have found in my short tenure as the Altamaha Riverkeeper. The State should post warnings on this section of the Oconee River to prevent swimming and wading. We should all work together and clean up our water ways so we can use our river for earning a living, fishing, swimming, canoeing, kayaking or simply wading around on the sand bars on a hot summer day. Please report to the EPD or your local health department if you see someone polluting our streams. Don't let other people, industries, or cities abuse our streams. |
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