St. Johns Riverkeeper announces intent to study science behind Georgia-Pacific waste pipeline: News. Politics. Media

In its continuing fight against a pipeline that will allow Georgia-Pacific to dump waste into the St. Johns River, river advocates are pledging to study the scientific validity of a report being used by the paper giant to justify its actions.

The planned pipeline has sparked its fair share of controversy, but according to the paper giant, a pipeline would be the only viable alternative to dumping its waste directly into Rice Creek. That waterbody, during the dry season, is 95 percent paper mill effluent.

When questioned about alternatives to the pipeline, Georgia-Pacific reps are quick to point to (.pdf) a study by Brown & Caldwell that concluded that there were no “viable alternatives” to the pipeline. But several area environmental organizations, including the St. Johns Riverkeeper, disagree.

In fact, the Riverkeeper feels so strongly that it has hired its own engineering firm to look over the Brown & Caldwell report.

During a Tuesday night “Beach Watch” meeting in Jacksonville, the Riverkeeper’s Jimmy Orth said that his group had, at one time, been working alongside Georgia-Pacific. “We tried to negotiate a plan … for an individual panel of scientists to look at testing their waters,” he said. “We worked with them for six months and … eventually they walked away.”

Now, Orth says that the Riverkeeper is close to launching a campaign directed at finding viable alternatives to the pipeline: “We’ve hired an engineering firm to look at the Brown & Caldwell study and see if it’s valid. Initially … this firm feels that there are viable alternatives.”

The Riverkeeper’s next steps, after releasing its study of the Brown & Caldwell report, will be to start a letter-writing campaign for newly-inaugurated Gov. Rick Scott: “We want people to write letters to the governor to make [Georgia-Pacific] look at other viable options.”

Georgia-Pacific has long come under fire as one of the St. Johns River’s top point-source polluters.

In an effort to clean up Rice Creek, the company was ordered to construct a pipeline that would reroute the waste into the much larger St. Johns River. The construction of a pipeline has been met with anger by environmentalists, who feel that dilution is not a logical way to remedy the pollution.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (a state agency) issued the mill an administrative order in May 2001, authorizing the “construction and operation” of the pipeline. While Georgia-Pacific is now free to construct the pipeline, it cannot begin using it till the requirements set forth in the administrative order are fully met, a stipulation that sparked a war of words between the company and the Department of Environmental Protection.

One issue often brought up in conjunction with Georgia-Pacific’s waste? Dioxin.

Following Orth’s speech at the Beach Watch meeting, one attendee brought up the chemical, which is regarded as being one of the most highly toxic: “I can’t connect the dots. They’re spending millions to treat our sewers at the bottom of the river. At the top, the St. Johns River Water Management District is going to allow water to be withdrawn, which will reduce the flow. They are also allowing dioxin to be present in the water. Dioxin — which is found in Agent Orange and, for many of us, has caused genetic mutations.”

Orth responded that Georgia-Pacific has long defended itself against the dioxin claim and will likely continue to do so: “[Georgia-Pacific] will say that they no longer have dioxins, but recent tests show otherwise. The EPA uses a new test that is much more sensitive … that [Georgia-Pacific] will probably say is ‘too new.’”