Editor, This letter was sent to Environmental Protection Divisions Director Dr. carol Couch, PhD.
As members of the Board of Directors of the Coastal Conservation Association of Georgia, we are writing on behalf of our more than 2,200 members in Georgia. Our organization consists primarily of recreational, saltwater anglers and our primary focus is the conservation and restoration of our coastal marine resources. We are writing you today to express our position on draft permit number GA0039101, which is currently under consideration by your division.
The Liberty County Industrial Authority has submitted this request for a permit to discharge up to 3 million gallons per day of treated wastewater into the Laurel View River in Liberty County. We have monitored the progress of this permit through the approval process and in keeping with our organization’s commitment to relying only on the “best science” to form our judgments, we have concerns regarding the thoroughness of the studies which support the environmental impact document submitted by the industrial authority.
We request that the permit process be pushed back to the environmental impact document phase, and that a credible, unbiased scientific investigation of the possible impacts of freshwater discharge into the Laurel View River be conducted. We believe a thorough environmental impact study will put to rest the majority of the concerns our members and numerous other coastal Georgia residents have expressed.
We appreciate the opportunity to comment to the EPD and we trust that our comments will be given fair and objective consideration as you weigh your decision. Please advise of your intended action plan on this request and, assuming you indeed push this project back to the EID stage, please include us on the results of the new studies as they become available.