EPA says Terry Creek site won’t be cleaned up any time soon

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that only Glynn County passed the urging resolution; the Brunswick City Commission did not.

Poisonous chemicals have leached into Brunswick’s land and water for decades due to the area’s four Superfund sites. The company legally obligated to clean one of them will only begin those plans for next year, more than a quarter of a century after it was listed as a contaminated area, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Terry Creek Dredge Spoils/Hercules Outfall Superfund site was designated as a contaminated area in 1997, 13 years after the Hercules main plant site went on the Superfund list. 

Patti Ghezzi, the spokeswoman for the EPA Region 4, which includes Georgia, says that a remedial investigation is set to begin in 2026, the first step before any cleanup can occur. 

The next stage will be an evaluation, which will not begin prior to 2027, and actual clean up will only occur after that feasibility study is finished and approved by government regulators and the company responsible for paying for the remediation work.

Given the history of remediation at the nearby LCP Chemicals site in Brunswick, now owned by Honeywell International, that process could still be years away.

Honeywell has been performing cleanup under a federally approved plan since 2015, and the company says it is nearing completion of the responsibilities under that plan. 

However, Brunswick city officials say those remediation efforts have not been adequate to stop pollution. The city has sued both Honeywell and Georgia Power Company for harm caused by the chemicals from the former plant that have spread and polluted city-owned land. That case has not been adjudicated. 

The EPA continues to provide oversight and changes to its remediation plan with Honeywell. In March, the agency selected a new solution to mitigate the levels of mercury found in the surficial aquifer and will work with the company to design the remedy in the coming months, Ghezzi said.

Before a cleanup plan is adopted for Terry Creek, Hercules and a subcontractor are supposed to construct a $6 million concrete-lined stormwater barrier to keep runoff from Terry and Dupree Creeks. That work was initially expected to be finished in 2024, then delayed to mid to late May.

Now that work is anticipated to be completed by late summer or early fall 2025, according to Ghezzi.  

The EPA will visit Brunswick on May 20 to provide residents with an in-person update for the Terry Creek and LCP sites.

In March, the environmental organization 100 Miles presented resolutions to both the Brunswick city council and Glynn County Board of Commissioners urging the EPA to “finalize effective remediation plans for two of the active Superfund sites.” 

The Glynn County Board of Commissioners passed the resolution.

Ghezzi said the EPA will continue to test for toxins in fish in Terry Creek. Toxaphene, a carcinogen, appears in higher than average amounts in many of the 97 Brunswick residents who participated in a health study about the effects of local Superfund sites on local communities.