The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a 25-foot buffer no longer exists along all state waters.
The court overturned a lower court ruling and said the state Environmental Protection Division did not err when it enacted a new policy saying only some state waters were protected by buffers.
The decision is a setback for environmentalists, who successfully persuaded state lawmakers this year to make clear that a 25-foot buffer does exists around many coastal waterways. The court’s decision, then, only applies to noncoastal waterways where there is no clear delineation of where the water ends and vegetation begins.
“A small strip of trees and plants may seem inconsequential, but that buffer provides a critical filter to prevent sediment and pollution from clogging our waters,” Bill Sapp, of the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. “We are disappointed with the decision, but regardless of today’s outcome, we will continue our work to restore protective measures and ensure that Georgia’s waterways are more swimmable and drinkable for the communities and industries that rely on clean water statewide.”
But EPD Director Jud Turner said the ruling will not change anything.
“The decision affirms EPD’s long-standing practice of administering the Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act by measuring buffers from the point of wrested vegetation,” he said in a statement. “EPD has been administering the act in this manner since buffers were placed in statute in 1989.”
Neill Herring, a veteran lobbyist for the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club, said most of Georgia’s streams do not have “wrested vegetation,” which is a term of art used in the court’s ruling.
“Only in rapidly flowing North Georgia streams is any vegetation ‘wrested’ by flows,” Herring said. “The court has decided that if there is no wrested vegetation, there is no requirement for a stream buffer, so that downstream landowners can just suck it up when anyone upstream cuts loose with anything, like mud or pesticide or petroleum waste, that might have been stopped by a vegetated buffer.”
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