The Brunswick News

Bill Owens stands near the fence which cordons off the old Brunswick wood preserving site on Perry Lane Road, now one of four spots in Glynn County designated as Superfund cleanup sites by the federal government.

Chemical residues from the site, where wood was treated with copper chromium arsenate, pentachlorophenol and creosote for years, caused the site to receive the designation for federally assisted cleanup in 1997.

A fence now forbids any trespassing on the land, but nearby residents like Paul Redding say they are still subjected to chemical runoff during heavy rains.

For Owens, who is president of the nonprofit Glynn Environmental Coalition, pollution is a big problem in Glynn County.

And the stakes couldn't be clearer.

"Little kids play in this water. They don't care if it has an oil slick on it," he said.

Owens' organization, which was formed in 1990 to provide technical assistance for the county's now four Superfund sites, is one of a small number of environmental organizations in the area that form a kind of second line of defense for the environment, following up on the work of public bodies like the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state's Environmental Protection Division.

The relationship between the two types of environmental entities is not always a rosy one.

Owens expresses little faith in government when it comes to protecting the environment, and he isn't alone.

Deborah Sheppard is executive director of the Darien-based nonprofit Altamaha Riverkeeper, which was founded in 1999 to protect and restore the quality of water of the Altamaha River watershed, which stretches from near Atlanta through McIntosh County.

Sheppard says that a mostly ineffective governmental approach to environmental protection – either through lack of funding, staffing, political will, or all three – is the reason citizen-based organizations like hers exist.

"What we would like is to be out of business. Our goal would be to have enforcement (so rigorous) that nobody would think of violating (environmental) laws," Sheppard said.

EPA spokesperson Dawn Harris-Young compared the relationship of the EPA to local citizen-based environmental groups as being similar to that of the agency with any other individual citizen.

The groups are able to provide comment and feedback on EPA actions in the same way as anyone else, she said.

"They are more organized and able to direct their focus, but they have the same abilities that local citizens would have," Harris-Young said of such groups.

Jim Harris, program manager with the Georgia EPD based in Brunswick, said the agency has good relationships with local environmental groups for the most part, because such groups are able to see problems the agency misses due to limited staffing and budget.

Contention can arise over some issues, Harris said, something he said can usually be attributed to the agency's limited regulatory power.

"We have to follow what the law says, and they might not always think that's the best approach. Fortunately, that doesn't happen too often."

In Glynn County, more groups than Owens' and Sheppard's organizations are lined up to explain what they think is the best approach.

As a regional planning analyst for the Coastal Georgia Regional Development Center for 15 years, David Kyler had the opportunity to analyze plenty of development projects firsthand.

He also was able to see the interplay between those decisions and the natural environment, and it was a relationship he decided wasn't being looked at closely enough.

"It became evident to me that it was in the region's interest to protect our resources, not only because they play a big part in quality of life, but also because they're fundamental to economic development," Kyler said. "Decision making was not adequately addressing those relationships."

As a result, Kyler founded the Center for a Sustainable Coast in 1997. The St. Simons Island-based nonprofit center, of which Kyler serves as executive director, preaches the importance of using natural resources wisely and sustainably. The center also emphasizes the importance of natural resources to the area's economy in areas like bio-tourism and commercial fishing.

STRATEGIES: Groups share some, but differ

While such groups have distinct environmentally-based missions, they all share a commonness in role, as well.

Frank Quinby, co-chair of the Southeast Georgia Group of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, uses a familiar metaphor to describe the role of his St. Simons Island-based group, which reports potential environmental violations to its parent chapter in Atlanta.

"We're kind of the watchdog down here for the Sierra Club when it comes to environmental issues," said Quinby.

If such organizations are watchdogs, though, they are not without chains. They have the power to bark, but any bite must come from the government.

If they perceive that a development permit or action by an industry is in violation of state or federal environmental law, they report the infraction to the appropriate agency. They also aren't afraid to argue their case in court, if they feel that government is shirking its responsibility to enforce environmental law.

Still, some distinctions do become clear upon closer examination.

Sheppard says the Altamaha Riverkeeper group only exists to encourage enforcement of existing environmental law.

"There are many things in the environment that are ugly or nasty but are not illegal or are not violations ... But in many, many cases, it's relatively easy to identify what is going on," she said.

Kyler's center, on the other hand, looks beyond existing law to try to effect change at the policy level.

An example of that is the issue of offshore oil exploration. It's a practice Kyler's center is opposed to, and which members have sent letters to Congress to try and prevent.

CONCERNS: Groups focus on different issues

In addition to their methods, each group also has its own unique area of focus, although overlap is again inevitable.

While Sheppard's Riverkeeper is primarily concerned with water quality along the Altamaha watershed and Kyler's center focuses on the relationship between the environment and economic opportunities, certain common areas of concern naturally arise.

Erosion and sedimentation along the banks of the Altamaha naturally raises concern for the Riverkeeper, for example, but it also falls under the purview of the Center for Sustainable Growth since it has an impact on the river's ecosystem.

In other arenas, the group's missions become a bit more distinct, however.

The Riverkeeper takes an active role in monitoring discharge into the waters of the Altamaha, primarily from industry.

Sheppard said that many of the organization's leads come from citizens who report areas of discharge they suspect of being unlawful. The Riverkeeper then investigates to determine if the level or type of discharge is a violation.

The organization's primary weapons are the federal Clean Water Act and permits issued by the state under the National Pollution Elimination Discharge System.

Nudging developers and industries to be more mindful of those laws isn't just a function of the Riverkeeper, Sheppard stresses. Citizens, independently, are just as capable of alerting the government to potential violations, if they choose.

"We don't like being in the position of serving as the tattletale for people who are violating laws and regulations, but because many citizens are reluctant to actually report their neighbors, or they're reluctant to challenge somebody over an action that they think is hurting water quality ... we've been put in that position," said Sheppard.

While the Riverkeeper seeks to prevent abuses of the Altamaha watershed as defined by law, Kyler defines his center as a body largely concerned with public education and affecting policy over the entire Georgia coast.

Offshore energy exploration, the rights of private entities to withdraw and sell groundwater, preservation of coastal marshlands to act as buffers for hurricane-force wind and water and protection of the endangered right whale are all on the center's rather large radar screen.

"If we get involved with any individual case, it's because we hope the outcome will be something that will set a precedent and have an effect at the policy level," Kyler said.

Meanwhile, the Glynn Environmental Coalition spends a lot of time working on existing problems in Brunswick and Glynn County.

Cleaning up or cordoning off Superfund sites while pressuring industries to evaluate and reveal their own impact on the environment make up a big part of the coalition's mission, Owens said.

For Owens, doing what he sees as the right thing isn't always easy. Just convincing people that the environment is worth their concern can be a challenge.

"It's a dry subject," he said. "It's really hard to get people to really see how concerned they should be.