Georgia Water Coalition releases 2016 “Dirty Dozen” report
The Georgia Water Coalition released its annual Dirty Dozen Report today, which highlights 12 of the worst offenses to Georgia's waterways in 2016.
While the report identifies some ongoing and serious pollution problems, it is not a list of the most polluted water bodies in Georgia, nor is the list in any ranked order. Instead, the Dirty Dozen aims to call attention to pending threats to Georgia’s water as well as state policies and failures that ultimately harm—or could harm—Georgia property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, and boaters and swimmers.
The 2016 report looks at a variety of problems throughout the state, including groundwater concerns around the safe disposal of coal ash, water supply issues with a proposed nuclear plant in South Georgia that would tap millions of gallons of water from the already over-stressed Chattahoochee River, and the threat of seismic testing off of Georgia’s coast despite widespread local opposition to offshore drilling and exploration.