The Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) — a consortium of 217 conservation and environmental organizations, hunting and fishing groups, businesses, and faith-based organizations that have been working to protect Georgia’s water since 2002 — released its Dirty Dozen concerns on October 22, 2014
Georgia River Network’s Executive Director Glenn Dowling says, “The Georgia Water Coalition publishes this annual list as a call to action for our state’s leaders and its citizens to come together to correct pollution problems, eliminate the wasteful use of our tax dollars and restore our streams, rivers, lakes and coastal wetlands.” Collectively, these organizations represent more than 300,000 Georgians.
The so-called Dirty Dozen references 12 of the worst offenses to Georgia’s waters, as compiled by GWC. One goal of the project is to shine “a spotlight on threats to Georgia’s water resources as well as the polluters and state policies or failures that ultimately harm—or could harm—Georgia property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, and boaters and swimmers.”
“The Dirty Dozen is not a list of the most polluted water bodies in Georgia, nor are they ranked in any particular order,” said the Coosa River Basin Initiative’s Advocacy & Communication Coordinator Joe Cook. “It’s a list of problems that exemplify the results of inadequate funding for Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD), a lack of political will to enforce existing environmental protections, and ultimately misguided water planning and spending priorities that flow from the very top of Georgia’s leadership.”
The Coalition’s full report details the history of each site and provides solutions to correct these ongoing problems and eliminate the listed threats.
GWC’s 2014 Dirty Dozen
- Georgia’s Water: State Water Policy Threatens Streams, Aggravates Water Wars, Wastes Tax Dollars
- Georgia’s Coastal & Freshwater Wetlands: EPD Refuses to Enforce Clean Water Laws
- Floridan Aquifer: State Leaders Drop Well Water Protections to Experiment With Risky Water Injection Schemes
- Chattahoochee River: Weakened State Agency Allows Industries to Foul River
- Coosa River: Long Delayed State Clean Up Plan Allows Power Company to Continue Polluting
- Flint River: Textile Manufacturer’s Pollution, State Water Policy Create Conundrum
- Savannah River: Pollutants, Nuclear Reactors Suck Water and Life out of Savannah
- Georgia’s Small Streams and Wetlands: National Rule To Protect Georgia’s Streams and Wetland Treasures Under Attack
- Withlacoochee River & Floridan Aquifer: Gas Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Water, Way of Life
- Turtle River: Toxic Legacy Poisons Dolphins, Drinking Water
- Satilla River: Toxic Legacies Threaten Waycross Residents
- Little Satilla Creek & Penholloway Creek: Titanium Mine Threatens Wetlands, Well Water
The full Dirty Dozen report from the Georgia Water Coalition is available by clicking the link below.
