An Atlanta administrative law judge Tuesday ruled against a South Georgia environmental group that sued the Georgia Environmental Protection Division over its regulation of a textile company the group claims dumps toxic chemicals into the Ogeechee River.
The group, Ogeechee Riverkeeper, challenged an EPD consent order the agency signed with Dover, Ga.-based King America Finishing last September allowing the company to continue to discharge into the Ogeechee after 38,634 fish died last May along a 70-mile stretch of the river starting just below the company's discharge pipe.
EPD discovered King America had been discharging into the river for five years without a permit. But an investigation by the agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to link the fish kill to King America, and King America has denied any connection.
Investigators said they may never know what killed the fish, but they theorized that high temperatures and low river levels so weakened the fish they died of the bacterial disease columnaris.
Judge Lois Oakley ruled that the group “failed to establish that the consent order has caused or will cause itself or its members injury” and failed to establish it had the legal standing to file the lawsuit.
Lee DeHihns III, an Atlanta attorney representing King America, said the company was pleased with Oakley’s ruling: “We believe that we negotiated a credible consent order, and we are hopeful that this decision will allow us to focus on getting our discharge permit renewed.”
Ogeechee Riverkeeper’s Atlanta attorney, Don Stack, called the ruling “truly unbelievable and disheartening.” He said the group plans to appeal to Superior Court.
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