Activists say river faces more than just threat from future dams

The 350-mile Flint River — the stream that defines about two-thirds of Fayette County’s eastern border — made environmental headlines last week with the release of a report by American Rivers on the nation’s most endangered river systems.

The environmental group called the Flint the second most endangered river in the country, primarily, according to the report, due to proposed water supply dams.

But a long-time, local environmental activist said last week the issues with the Flint involve more than the possibility of constructing dams.

The American Rivers report cited Rep. Lynn Westmoreland and the House Appropriations Committee as looking into the designation of $10 million to study the need for dams along the Flint to provide an increased source of water supply.

Brian Robinson, Westmoreland’s representative in his Washington D.C. office, said Monday that while Westmoreland is not on the appropriations committee he is nonetheless concerned about the Flint River. Along with Rep. Nathan Deal, whose district includes Lake Lanier, Westmoreland has taken an interest in exploring additional reservoirs in Georgia, said Robinson.

The extent of the recent drought put many communities in dire straits and put significant strain on reservoirs and on some Georgia counties, Robinson said, both in terms of economic problems and with the lack of drinking water.

“Each jurisdiction wants to have their lake full. Two years ago everybody was pointing fingers and saying, ‘Why didn’t we plan?’ Westmoreland and Deal are saying we shouldn’t get caught off guard again,” Robinson said.

Addressing the Water Resource and Development Bill from last session and the American Rivers report of a potential $10 million study, Robinson said the bill never got out of the House.

“There is no bill at the moment. No dollars for a study and no bill to put the money in,” Robinson said. “Congressman Westmoreland still believes a study is necessary and that we should plan responsibly for Georgia’s future.”

Fayette County resident and former U.S. Fish & Wildlife biologist Dennis Chase had a number of observations last week as he stood on the banks of the Flint at Ga. Highway 92.

Chase referenced former President Jimmy Carter’s 1974 veto of the attempt to construct a dam at the scenic Sprewell Bluff area bordering Pike, Upson and Meriwether counties. The area now comprises a state recreation area.

“Westmoreland is still involved in that or is re-involved in trying to destroy Sprewell Bluff again. When Jimmy Carter was governor, I was not allowed to get involved in that fight. But we were cheering on the folks in Thomaston and Upson County. They took their case to Jimmy Carter and he vetoed the idea,” Chase said. “Out here, stuff happens at the whim or the will of governments and industry and there’s almost nothing done officially to stop it.”

Chase said the potential for constructing one or more dams on the Flint is something that should be based on an objective, all-encompassing study and full disclosure.

“The first and most obvious reason not to build a dam is that you destroy one of the most beautiful segments of the Flint River. And Sprewell Bluff is phenomenal. The area is very heavily used. And to try put a reservoir in because that will be the quick fix, that’s thinking like the old-style politicians. They don’t want to take the harder routes of conservation and sensible uses,” Chase said.

“But the main purpose for for wanting to build the reservoir is for agriculture. They want to have a consistent source of water for the agricultural uses further downstream. I believe you have to have a strong case to put in a reservoir. A strong case would be to build in a back-up system to have water during low-flow periods for agriculture down river, which isn’t all bad. You just need to do it with the full disclosure of all the reasons and all the impacts,” Chase said.

As cited in the American Rivers report, the Flint River originates south of Atlanta and flows 350 miles southeast to join the Chattahoochee River at the Georgia-Florida-Alabama state line to become the Apalachicola River. The Flint is one of 40 rivers nationwide that still flows undammed for more than 200 miles.

The river and its healthy wetlands and floodplains are home to the unique shoal lily, shoal bass, Halloween darter, and 22 species of mussels. The Flint’s lower stretches contain springs, seeps, and caves that are habitat for the endemic Georgia blind cave salamander and Dougherty plain cave crayfish.

More than 245 million gallons of water from the upper Flint River and its associated aquifer are used each day for industrial uses and drinking water for the 600,000 residents in the basin. Flint River water is used to irrigate more than 1,145,000 acres of peanuts, corn and other crops. The river is used extensively by fishermen and boaters, and many local economies depend on the Flint for tourism dollars, the report said.

But the problem with the Flint involves more than constructing dams along its flow into the Chattahoochee River in south Georgia. Some of those problems include fecal coliform and mercury contamination.

Fish consumption warnings are listed on Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s (EPD) website. Specific to the Flint in Fayette County, the website recommends eating only 1 meal per week of largemouth bass due to the levels of mercury found in samples taken by EPD. But who knows about the advisory?

“Here we have a good example. We have people today out here fishing. He has no idea that if he catches a bass and comes back and catches a bass tomorrow he is endangering himself and his family from eating that fish because the state will not post the sign warning him. The state says they post it on their website and that’s enough. It took me 10 minutes to find it and I knew what I was looking for. So how is this guy going to find it?” Chase asked.

Sitting in her folding chair at the river’s edge that morning was 69-year-old Griffin resident Annie Meriweather, who has been fishing in the same spot for nearly 50 years. She was not aware of the EPD advisory on mercury. Meriweather said she sometimes catches bream or crappie and occasionally a catfish, but hardly ever sees a bass in this portion of the Flint waters.

Also at the river last week was Fairburn-based Environmental Institute of Georgia (EIOG) board chairman Connie Thomas Biemiller. The non-profit organization, on which Chase also serves as a board member, was formed last year.

“We were shocked to see that the Flint River was second in line on the list of the most endangered rivers in the nation. And exactly what’s floating in this river is a concern to the community,” Biemiller said. “Since there are no signs posted to let people know of the gross violations happening in this river, we feel it’s imperative to try to help educate the community.”

For the Flint River, the problems transcend dams and mercury advisories. When Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) got involved with these issues in 2004 they told Fayetteville and Fayette County that they had some total maximum daily load (TMDL) issues with fecal coliform, Chase said. That’s the bacteria found in human sewage.

“Essentially all the way from here to Hartsfield Airport has fecal coliform problems,” Chase said. “The presumption is that it is from sewage. It can come from wildlife. But it’s receiving excessive loads of fecal coliform. So at the 2004 meeting I asked what they expected Fayette County to do about a problem they didn’t create. The fecal coliform is coming from Fulton and Clayton counties,” Chase said.

“So these people from ARC and EPD came down and said we had a problem we needed to fix. They said if Fayette County wanted to set up some negotiation deals with the other counties they would mediate. I said, ‘What’s the matter with you people. You come out here and basically accuse us of having a problem we need to fix but we can’t fix the problem of somebody else dumping on us,’” Chase said.

“But the rest of the story is that we dump on Spalding County, Meriwether County and Upson County because of what we do or don’t do in our sewage treatment plants. But the main issue is that ARC is trying to play a role in this and in transportation out here and these people don’t know what they’re talking about. They are pretending to have a knowledge base that they don’t have and they don’t have our best interest at heart.”

But there is still another problem with the Flint River. The problem exists at its headwaters.

“The river is dead for the first mile and an half. There is nothing alive. I looked for life and there was nothing there,” Chase said emphatically, referencing a 2002 Flint River study he authored. “The importance of that is that the state EPD office is a mile and a half away from one of the most polluted pieces of river in Georgia. And they ignore it.”

Chase said a roadway adjacent to Hartsfield airport is a customary place for people to dump various types of garbage.

“Downstream from there for miles there are one-, two-, three-foot-thick piles of garbage up along the banks where it gets washed up to the river bank. And it’s coming down here.”

Beyond illegal dumping, there is the matter of the destruction of feeder streams that are destroyed by various forms of development.

“The Flint River is the recipient of the many small streams that feed it. There are too many streams that are being destroyed,” Chase said. “The trouble is that almost nothing is going to happen. We keep electing these people and then they ignore these kinds of problems. Even when you have a river that’s dead there is no interest in fixing it.”

The definitive work on the Flint River, its surrounding environment and history, can be found in “The Flint River: A Recreational Guidebook to the Flint River and Environs,” by Fred and Sherri Brown of Peachtree City. Fred Brown is editor and publisher of www.BrownsGuides.com.

More information on the Flint River can be found at the following links:

http://www.americanrivers.org/our-work/protecting-rivers/endangered-rivers/2009/flint.html

http://brownsguides.com/srl/preserving-a-georgia-treasure/

http://brownsguides.com/srl/the-fight-to-save-the-flint/

http://brownsguides.com/srl/the-flint-now/