The state Environmental Protection Division is holding a public hearing 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 12, at Effingham County High School, 1589 Ga. Highway 119 S., in Springfield, Ga. to help determine whether to grant a permit allowing textile plant King America Finishing to continue discharging from its fire retardant fabric production line into the Ogeechee River.
The EPD connected KAF's discharge, which the company ran for years without a permit, to a the biggest fish kill in state history last year, when 38,000 fish died along 70 miles of the river downstream of the KAF plant near Statesboro. The company changed the processing of its discharge and tightened its self-monitoring after signing a consent order last September with EPD , which levied a $1 million penalty against the company.
A fish kill of about 100 along the river last month revived fears that the company still has not cleaned up its discharge, although the EPD determined after an investigation that drought conditions of low stream levels and high temperatures, and bactertial diseases killed the fish last month, not KAF's discharge.
Environmentalists have been calling for a public hearing over KAF's permit for more than year. The Ogeechee Riverkeeper last year filed suit against EPD challenging its consent order with King America Finishing. It lost the first round in a state administrative court. It has appealed in Superior Court of Bulloch County. King America Finishing has denied any responsibility for the fish kills.
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