– July 31, 2024 –
Good morning! We have three stories today of Coastal Georgia residents seeing an environmental problem and responding with action. They’re like a cool breeze on this last day of a hot July. Enjoy.
Questions, tips or concerns? Send me a note at mary.landers@thecurrentga.org
Community steps up to test water
With four Superfund sites nearby, Brunswick residents live with a legacy of toxic pollution. It can be unnerving. And it’s difficult to do anything about it. But a new program that partners scientists at Georgia Southern University with local residents empowers these new “citizen scientists” to get involved.
“We can’t control everything, but we can at least come out and sample our water and be a part of this,” participant Terry Walker said. “It just gives me a little bit more ease when I lay down at night that maybe I am making a difference.”
Read more about the effort and watch a video from The Current’s Serra Sowers here.
New uses for old houses
Coastal Georgia’s old buildings are full of irreplaceable materials like heart pine flooring and Savannah grey bricks. And Coastal Georgia’s landfills are full of construction and demolition waste that contributes to climate change as it decomposes. Enter the nonprofit Re:Purpose Savannah. It takes buildings apart rather than bulldozing them, re-selling historic materials and cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions.
Read more about Re:Purpose Savannah in this article from Emily Jones of WABE/Grist.
Untrashing a canal
On Saturday a group of about 25 volunteers set out in canoes and kayaks to clear litter from the Springfield Canal near the Enmarket Arena. Within two hours they had filled their boats with 600 pounds of bottles, cans, cups, wrappers, and the occasional shoe from a 220-yard stretch of the waterway. The group Friends of Urban Nature (FUN) organized the kayaking cleanup. Find them on Instagram here. Another group, Team Moonbird, works to support and promote this and other litter cleanups around Chatham County. If you’re interested in upcoming efforts — both on water and on land — check out Team Moonbird’s Facebook page.
Also noted
- The Georgia Conservancy’s new board chair is Tim McKinley of Atlanta, the statewide nonprofit announced this week. McKinley serves as the Chief Sales Officer of Cox Automotive, a global automotive services and software company part of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, Inc.
- The Public Service Commission heard last week from environmentalists opposed to Georgia Power adding more fossil fuels to its mix, arguing more natural gas burned means worsening climate change and volatile rates for customers. Stanley Dunlap of the Georgia Recorder reports.
- The University of North Florida Shark Biology Program caught, tagged and released the first sawfish recorded in its 16 years of surveying shark populations in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. Researchers found the endangered 9.9-foot smalltooth sawfish in the St. Marys River on July 16.
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Brunswick residents join scientists to test water quality near Superfund sites
A partnership between residents of Brunswick and Georgia Southern University’s Institute for Water and Health is hoping to bridge the gaps in data collection in some of Glynn county’s most polluted waters.
Georgia companies deconstruct buildings instead of demolishing them
By deconstructing instead of demolishing buildings, companies save anything that can be reused, instead of sending it to a landfill to decompose.
Environmentalists ask state PSC to pause Georgia Power’s plan to use more natural gas
Environmental groups argued that adding adding more polluting fossil fuels that will be in operation for nearly 50 years will do long-term harm to public health and the environment..
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