The Effingham County Emergency Management Agency has issued its third advisory in the last 13 months telling people not to fish or swim in or eat fish caught in the Ogeechee River in Southeast Georgia, near Statesboro. The county issued the warning after a 3-foot-long catfish was found dead in the river. There was evidence the cause may have been the bacterial disease Columnaris, a factor in two previous fish kills.
Last year about 38,000 fish were killed along a 70-mile stretch of the river below the discharge pipe of the King America Finishing plant. After an investigation, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency blamed the deaths on Columnaris that the fish were vulnerable to because of high water temperatures and low stream flows.
Although the EPD and EPA concluded the fish were killed last year by bacteria, EPD director Judson Turner said in a letter last January to Ga. Senator Jack Hill (R-4th District) that EPD had "traced the problem to King America Finishing," which, before the kill, had been discharging wastewater from its fire-retardant fabric production line without a permit.
In May there was a second fish kill, of fewer than 100 fish. EPD investigators attributed that kill to high water temperatures, low stream flows, and two bacterial diseases. Effingham, Bulloch and Screven counties posted notices cautioning citizens to avoid fishing or swimming in the river. Those warnings were lifted after the EPD determined the cause of the fish kill.
King American Finishing has denied any link to the fish kills. But a public hearing in June over the EPD issuing a permit to the company that will allow it to continue to discharge from the fire retardant line was attended by hundreds, many who voiced opposition to EPD issuing a permit.
Effingham EMA director Ed Myrick said in annoucing the latest advisory "it is apparent that the pollutants in the Ogeechee River are continuing to be an ongoing problem and may always be until the Northern portions of the river are reclassified. I sympathize with the businesses that depend on the Ogeechee River for income, but we must look after the health and safety of everyone involved."
