Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Good morning! We start today in Liberty County, where officials have responded to the concerns of river enthusiasts. Across the state, farmers are getting assistance from a new program that seeks to protect their land from development. And speaking of protection, there will soon be a new type of sunscreen available in the US for the first time.
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NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
Liberty seeks more data on its rivers
The Liberty County Development Authority voted Monday to seek additional testing for both the Laurel View and North Newport rivers as possible discharge sites for the county’s planned new wastewater treatment plant, as The Current GA’s Robin Kemp reports.
The vote marked a victory for environmentalists and residents who live along the Laurel View and connected rivers. Over 200 people attended a June 9 standing-room-only public meeting about the Laurel View plant amid heated discussions about how to handle any leftover treated wastewater that would not be reused for irrigation and cooling.
EXPLAINER: ENVIRONMENT
Program stems the loss of farmland
Georgia’s legislature has created a new program to help farmers sell development rights while keeping their land, as Emily Jones of WABE/Grist reports. The landowner receives an upfront payment, half of which comes from state funds under The Georgia Farmland Conservation Fund. The rest could come from a land trust, local government or the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The landowner can continue farming, grazing livestock, growing and harvesting timber, or however else they use their land. They can even sell the land — just not to a developer who will turn it into housing, a strip mall or an industrial site.
NEWS: HEALTH
New sunscreen approved
Federal regulators have approved the first new sunscreen ingredient, bemotrizinol, for over-the-counter consumer use since 1999, The Conversation reports. Bemotrizinol filters both UVA and UVB rays, and does not degrade as readily in the sun as other chemical sunscreen products, so it doesn’t have to be reapplied as often. Unfortunately for sun lovers, the new ingredient likely won’t be available for purchase until September, NPR reports. Until then, remember that any sunscreen is better than none.
Also noted:
- The National Science Foundation reversed its decision to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative after receiving objections from scientists and lawmakers. It will instead redeploy the removed equipment and convene an expert panel to determine the future of the network.
- About mid-way through sea turtle nesting season, the Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative has documented 2,366 loggerhead nests on the state’s beaches, the group reports on Facebook. “We predict this year’s final nest total will be approximately 4,700 nests, a record year for Georgia,” they write. “The previous high was 4,072 nests in 2022.”
- The Coastal Resources Division of Georgia DNR sponsors Beach Week 2026, to bring free, family-friendly, educational events directly to the beach on Jekyll, St. Simons, Tybee islands from June 29-July 1. Click here for more information.
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Liberty County Development Authority to seek more data on local rivers
Ogeechee Riverkeeper’s yearlong testing would track various factors across all four seasons, while Water Environment Consultants’ salinity testing would take “probably 30 to 60 days,” according to project engineer Chris Stovall of Thomas & Hutton.
FDA approves new sunscreen ingredient
The FDA has approved the first new sunscreen ingredient, bemotrizinol, for over-the-counter consumer use in the US since 1999, which has been used in Europe and Asia for decades and has the ability to filter both UVA and UVB rays, lasting for four to eight hours.
Georgia is losing farmland fast
Georgia has created a new program to help farmers protect their land from development by selling development rights to outside organizations, while still being able to farm the land.
Georgia’s QR codes for scanning ballots will remain for midterms after lawmakers delay fix
Georgia lawmakers passed legislation Tuesday to delay changes to the state’s QR code-based vote counting system until 2028, while also limiting hand recounts to eight statewide races with a half percentage point margin of victory.
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