Blog Post, Educational educational resources, stream ecology, video

Stream Ecology

by Ogeechee Riverkeeper November 4, 2020

Find a safe, calm body of water to sample using a net, light-colored bucket and clear cups.

Fill the bucket with a few inches of water; sample with a net and dump contents into the bucket including plant material. Scoop cups into buckets to identify macroinverts and other aquatic life up close. Once you are done sampling, dump all contents back into the water, including plant material because there are microinvertebrates living in the plants.

Take pictures of what you find and draw the animals/insects. If you are unable to identify what you find on site, take notes about each animal/insect and research when you get home.

Activity is open to all ages and was adapted from Rock Eagle 4-H Center Education Program Curriculum. It meets the needs or can be combined with other activities for the following Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:

S2E3. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how weather, plants, animals, and humans cause changes to the environment.
S3L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the similarities and differences between plants, animals, and habitats found within geographic regions (Blue Ridge Mountains, Piedmont, Coastal Plains, Valley and Ridge, and Appalachian Plateau) of Georgia.
S4E3. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to demonstrate the water cycle.
S5L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to group organisms using scientific classification procedures.
S7L4. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to examine the interdependence of organisms with one another and their environments.

Blog Post, Press Releases EPD, milliken, permit, pfas, violations

PRESS RELEASE: GA EPD poised to issue weakened Milliken permit

by Ogeechee Riverkeeper October 20, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
10/20/20
Ogeechee Riverkeeper
Contact: Meaghan Gerard
Communications and Administrative Director
meaghan@ogeecheeriverkeeper.org

DESPITE MULTIPLE CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATIONS, GEORGIA EPD IS POISED TO ISSUE WEAKENED MILLIKEN PERMIT

Ogeechee Riverkeeper (ORK) has reviewed the draft permit released by Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD) for Milliken Longleaf Pine Facility which discharges into the Ogeechee River. ORK issues the following as its official statement regarding the draft permit, at this time:

On September 30, 2020, Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD) released a draft permit for the Milliken Longleaf Pine Facility, formerly known as King America Finishing (KAF).

In 2011, approximately 75 miles of the Ogeechee River, downstream from this facility, experienced one of the worst fish kills in Georgia’s history.

Following that environmental disaster, Ogeechee Riverkeeper (ORK) held the facility accountable for its Clean Water Act (CWA) violations, resulting in one of the most stringent permits ever issued by GA EPD in order to protect the health and ecology of the river.

Now, nearly a decade later, GA EPD’s new proposed permit puts many of those protections and safeguards at serious risk.

The draft permit eliminates the testing of many parameters and constituents (including formaldehyde and flame retardant (THPC)), and reduces the required frequency of sampling for many others. This is in spite of the fact that the facility has been found in violation of their existing permit every quarter of the last 12 quarters. In light of this problematic history, ORK is requesting GA EPD tighten toxicity requirements in the final permit.

It is ORK’s position that no parameters or constituents should be removed from the permit and there should be no reduction in the frequency of sampling or testing requirements.

The facility’s unwillingness to invest adequate resources to operate within its permit limits is no excuse for loosening its permit requirements.

In addition, the draft permit adds tiered limitations that would be based on the facility’s own, self-reported production levels. ORK is requesting that GA EPD base the permit limitations on levels that are protective of the river, not based on production levels the factory hopes to achieve.

A surprising development was made during ORK’s routine monitoring and a subsequent investigation. ORK discovered that Milliken is discharging polyfluoroalkyl or perfluoroalkyl (PFAs) chemicals into the river. PFAs are chemicals that are known to have serious negative effects on human health and bioaccumulate in fish and other organisms that humans consume.

One of the provisions of the settlement between Milliken/KAF and ORK after the 2011 fish kill required Milliken/KAF to perform a complete fish tissue study if it was found to be discharging PFAs. This study was intended to determine the levels of chemicals bioaccumulating in the river.

On April 9, 2014, Milliken submitted documentation from a certified lab in accordance with that requirement stating that they were not discharging PFAs. GA EPD accepted the findings without independent verification.

ORK’s independent investigation indicated the facility was in fact discharging PFAs chemicals. ORK evaluated the document submitted to GA EPD by Milliken, only to find that the method and detection limits used were insufficient to determine the facility’s use of these chemicals – in other words, the study itself was inadequate and flawed. Its results are therefore questionable.

It is ORK’s position that a fish tissue study — which should have already been required based on the 2014 settlement — must be completed before a new permit is issued.

The public has a right to know the chemical levels in the fish that they consume from the river and the estuary it empties into. Additionally, the results of this study should be used by GA EPD to inform PFAs limitations and requirements in the new permit.

Milliken’s track record of multiple violations, inadequate evaluations, and inconsistent self-reporting illustrates how dangerous the facility is to the health of the Ogeechee River. ORK is asking GA EPD to issue a permit that prioritizes the safety and health of the river and its users, and not the desires of the polluter.

ORK encourages citizens that share the goals of protecting the watershed and improving the water quality of the river to help in this effort by attending a virtual public meeting on November 17 and submitting written comments by November 20.

Further details, including a copy of the draft permit, information about the 2011 fish kill, and a side-by-side permit comparison, are available at ogeecheeriverkeeper.org/milliken.

About Ogeechee Riverkeeper: Ogeechee Riverkeeper 501(c)(3) works to protect, preserve, and improve the water quality of the Ogeechee River basin, which includes all of the streams flowing out to Ossabaw Sound and St. Catherine’s Sound. At 245 miles long, the Ogeechee River system drains more than 5,000 square miles of land. More at ogeecheeriverkeeper.org.

Blog Post, Educational contest, poem, poetry, winners

Nature poetry

by Ogeechee Riverkeeper October 17, 2020

Updated: October 28, 2020

Turn to the outdoors for poetic inspiration. Sit and observe nature for a few minutes. Notice what you hear, smell and feel. Take your impressions, focus on specific descriptions, and compose a short poem.

Tips:

Read other poems to get an idea for the styles you like.
Use comparisons (simile and metaphor).
Read it out loud to yourself so you can hear how it sounds.
Listen to tips from Kwame Alexander, NPR’s poet-in-residence

Submit your entry by Wednesday, September 30, 2020 to info@ogeecheeriverkeeper.org. Include your name, age, poem (20 lines or less) and the location that inspired it – attach a photo if you want! ORK will award a t-shirt to the top three poets.

Activity is open to all ages and meets the needs or can be combined with other activities for the following Georgia Standards of Excellence in language arts.

ELAGSE3RL10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

This contest is now closed. Read the winning entries below.

The Mill Pond at George L. Smith II State Park
By Wesley Hendley

Paddling through cypress trees and tupelos,
The air cools, the sky grows dark.
Raindrops surround the boat with tinkling music.
Thunder rumbles, lightning pops!
The torrent comes,
But summer storms don’t last long.
Quiet returns.
The calm water has a glassy sheen.
Then a rainbow points the way to its treasure.

Reverie in Smith State Park
By Peter Relic

Crush the scull
through the water’s top,
a black silk parachute
gilded with bream
rippling across the face
of the lake.
Mind like a millstone
thirsty for grist,
hair piled high as
a wagonload of corn,
you lie back in rented kayak
as if it were your
new turquoise coffin
and stare straight up
at cypress sentinels
and tupelo goalposts,
to chart the ghost
of a gopher tortoise
skating across the sky.
You gonna paddle or not
grunts the tour guide.
What can you say?
We should all be so lucky
to go out this way.

The Bridge
By Mark Dallas

He carries his chem kit under the bridge to test the water.
A few drops of thiosulfate change the sample from indigo
to amethyst to clear, revealing the level of dissolved
oxygen. Now, the darting barn swallows eye the man who stands
so close to their nests stuck to the beams above him.

So many
times he’s canoed here, upstream from the lake to the south, taking
in the cypress and tupelo, herons and hawks—while floating
through the effulgence of sunlight filling the water, the trees.
Paddling beneath the bridge, he thinks each car that rumbles above
inhabits another world—of deadlines and noise. So often
he’s driven the bridge himself, in that other world, most times looking
down longingly to see where the water measures on the cypress
trunks. The bridge is a nexus of two worlds he knows so well.

But once a month he drives to a place in between, parks beside the
road, walks down to the halfway world of test tubes and barn swallows.
He holds aloft the sample bottle—a small vial of the creek—
after the first three chemicals but before he adds the starch
indicator and sodium thiosulfate: the sample
glows golden in the sun. This is the place he’s bottled the
effulgence, the place in between, the bridge between two worlds.

Blog Post, Press Releases boom, bulloch county, litter trap, little lotts creek, Statesboro

ORK partners with Statesboro, KSSB to install litter trap

by Ogeechee Riverkeeper September 30, 2020

CORRECTION: A photo was mistakenly shared in connection with this story. The image depicted a boom-style litter trap that was constructed and installed by WATERGOAT, while the litter trap in the story was purchased from another provider. The image was removed from this site and social media after its origin was identified. ORK regrets the error.

The image below is new and is from the installation at Little Lotts Creek on October 4, 2020.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09/30/20

Ogeechee Riverkeeper
Contact: Meaghan Gerard
Communications and Administrative Director
meaghan@ogeecheeriverkeeper.org

Keep Statesboro-Bulloch Beautiful
Contact: Amanda Clements
KSBB Coordinator
amanda.clements@statesboroga.gov

OGEECHEE RIVERKEEPER PARTNERS WITH CITY OF STATESBORO, KEEP STATESBORO-BULLOCH BEAUTIFUL TO INSTALL A LITTER TRAP
Little Lotts Creek location aims to be the first in an expanding program

Ogeechee Riverkeeper (ORK) has partnered with the City of Statesboro and Keep Statesboro-Bulloch Beautiful (KSBB) to help curb litter pollution in Little Lotts Creek. ORK researched litter trap technology and will install a ‘boom’ style device to catch litter. In collaboration with officials from the City of Statesboro, an initial site was chosen in Little Lotts Creek.

The City of Statesboro covered the cost to purchase the ‘boom’ litter trap, which uses a string of floats and a net to capture pieces of litter. ORK and KSBB will install the trap in October and coordinate regular pickups of trash cleared out of the trap. Items that can be recycled or repurposed will be collected by Boro Recycling. Other stakeholders for the project include community members with an interest in curbing litter and pollution.

Installation of litter trap, October 4, 2020

“We hope this will be the first of many similar traps in Statesboro, Bulloch and beyond,” says Damon Mullis, executive director and riverkeeper at Ogeechee Riverkeeper. “And we will use this project to educate the public about how to reduce litter in our waterways, and how litter affects the health of our watershed.”

“The City has been looking for ways to continue partnering with Ogeechee Riverkeeper on a stream clean project,” said John Washington, city engineer, “and this was a very viable venture. If successful, this may lead to other partnerships throughout the City.”

A media advisory with details about installation will be distributed in early October.

About Keep Statesboro-Bulloch Beautiful: Keep Statesboro-Bulloch Beautiful is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation. Our goal is to educate and empower citizens and businesses with the resources needed to facilitate litter prevention, beautification, and community greening within the city of Statesboro and surrounding areas. More information can be found at keepstatesborobullochbeautiful.org.

Images and interviews available upon request.

Watch a time lapse video of the installation.

Blog Post, Creature Feature creature feature, fauna, pocket gopher, rodent, threatened

Fauna: Geomys fontanelus

by Ogeechee Riverkeeper August 14, 2020

Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center

Geomys fontanelus
Southeastern pocket gopher

You might never have seen a pocket gopher as they live almost entirely underground. They are fossorial creatures, meaning they are excellent diggers and prefer to burrow. They flourish in the type of soil found under the longleaf pine, which makes them very happy in the Ogeechee River basin. With giant front teeth and long claws, they look threatening, but are mostly harmless rodents.

They can be annoying for farmers as they dig up mounds of dirt in their fields, but they are ecologically significant in the aeration and mixing of the soil. They are particularly helpful in restoring forests after a prescribed burn by eating subterranean roots and preparing the land for a new planting of pine trees.

You are also unlikely to see a pocket gopher due to their threatened status and declining number. They were listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1989 and were even thought to be extinct for a number of years. Scientists are now finding small, locally-abundant populations but they are overall quite scarce.

A very annoyed gopher. Photo by Jim Ozier, GA DNR Wildlife Resources

There are a handful of subspecies in the Ogeechee River basin. G. p. cumberlandius is found only on Cumberland Island in Georgia. G. p. fontanelus is an isolated population near Savannah, and G. p. colonus is restricted to coastal plains in Camden Co., Georgia.