Editor, This is an open letter to Liberty County Development Authority and CH2MHILL.
It is obvious you have little understanding or appreciation of our Georgia coastal estuaries. Your proposal to dump wastewater into the Laurel View River is unacceptable. We are stewards of the marshes, rivers and the marine life abounding on our coast.
What we enjoy took millions of years to evolve. We, who are simply grains of sand, swept ashore by the incoming tide, deposited on the beach of time, must preserve and protect as we fleetingly pass through life on Earth. Our time is short, for the outgoing tide will reclaim us into the eternal sea from which we came.
This part of coastal Georgia is my home and the rivers and marsh are a natural resource in a pristine environment I cherish and enjoy. The tide ebbs and flows and the marshes are a vista of beauty and serenity. Seen are birds, porpoises and mullet jumping. Unseen is the minute activity within the marshes, nurturing the food chain of the rivers and ocean. The rivers are alive with oysters, crabs, fiddlers, shrimp and fish. How can you risk damage to this vital resource?
What happens when the marsh is endangered? Where are the crabs and fish? Where are the sounds of the cackle of marsh hens? Where are the oyster beds? Where are the porpoise sleekly gliding through the river? Where are the egrets, herons and wood storks? Where is the osprey flying overhead? Gone.
Our responsibility is to protect what has been entrusted to us simply by living in this time and place. Our legacy is to leave this Earth for future generations to enjoy. I write this letter on behalf of my grandchildren and their children’s children. Do not endanger the Georgia coast for the generations who are to follow.