Disappearing Environmental Data

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Good morning! Today we’re taking a look while we can at disappearing federal environmental data. We also have an update on last week’s Georgia Supreme Court hearing on McIntosh County’s aborted Sapelo Island zoning referendum. And finally, we have a story that examines how the very valuable location of a Chatham County industrial site helped catalyze its cleanup.

Questions, tips or concerns? Send me a note at mary.landers@thecurrentga.org

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ANALYSIS: ENVIRONMENT

Disappearing data

Maps that shows at a glance if coastal water is reaching hot tub temperatures — a crucial measure for hurricane strength — are among the data collections the Trump Administration is planning to take offline soon, The Current’s Maggie Lee reports. Other soon-to-be disappeared data sets include one that tracks earthquake intensity and another that maps coastal ecosystems. Working to stem the damage from the loss of these resources, non-profit newsrooms, scientists, and tech enthusiasts have united to archive public data on websites such as Public Environmental Data Partners and Data Rescue Project.

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NEWS: COURTS

Ga. high court hears Sapelo case

The Georgia Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week about a stalled referendum in McIntosh County, as The Current’s Mary Landers reports. Residents there put to a vote the recall of a zoning decision they feared would lead to gentrification and higher taxes in Sapelo’s Hogg Hummock neighborhood. The county sued to halt the referendum mid-vote. Much of the high court hearing revolved around the legal fine points of the “home rule” provision of the Georgia Constitution. But the residents’ attorney, Philip Thompson, put the issue more plainly: “The purpose of this petition is to protect and preserve the Hogg Hummock community, one of the last Gullah Geechee communities in the United States and a cultural and historical treasure, both for the state, but also for the country as well as a whole.”

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NEWS: ENVIRONMENT

Riverfront property finishes cleanup

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has removed the 755-acre SeaPoint Industrial Terminal Complex on the southern bank of the Savannah River from its Hazardous Site Inventory List. This is the latest of 425 brownfield sites cleaned up since Georgia began its brownfield program in 2003. The Current’s Mary Landers reports on how this site made it off the list while other sites remain contaminated.

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Also noted

Pope Francis, who died Monday, made headlines as well as allies in the environmental community when he released Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home in 2015. The environmental encyclical faced the problem of climate change head-on and inspired activism worldwide, writes Celia Deane-Drummond, director of Laudato Si’ Research Institute at University of Oxford in The Conversation.

The Environmental Protection Agency approved a two-year exemption allowing Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen and Plant Scherer, both coal-fired, to bypass federal emission regulations for mercury and other air pollutants, as Georgia Recorder’s Stanley Dunlap reports.

The 18th Annual Turtle Trot 5K Beach Run to benefit The Tybee Sea Turtle Project at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center takes place at 9 a.m. Saturday April 26 at 37 Meddin Dr., Tybee Island. Registered participants will “run, walk, or crawl” along the shoreline route that returns to North Beach in front of the marine science center. The event will be followed by an awards ceremony and a celebration of the start of sea turtle nesting season on Tybee’s beaches. Register here.

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