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A proposed warehouse development in Effingham County could have dangerous impacts on the drinking water for an estimated 400 thousand people in Chatham, Bryan, and Effingham Counties.
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HERE'S THE PROBLEM
In the last year, the lower river region has lost hundreds of acres of vitally important wetlands to commercial warehouse developments.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and local municipalities allow these fundamental areas for flood passages to be turned into concrete pads and giant storage buildings. The communities impacted not only see the effects of the warehouses themselves but the increased commercial truck traffic as well.
These commercial developments in precious wetlands reached a dangerous point last week when Effingham County Commissioners agreed to rezone the property right next door to the drinking water intake for Chatham, Effingham, and parts of Bryan counties.
Using language like "We trust the clean water act and the feds to protect us" the commissioners chose to go forward with permitting a warehouse development.
Those commissioners attempted to use the reasoning that the warehouses would be downstream from the intake, avoiding the fact that the Savannah River in the area flows based on the tide.
400,000 people rely on Abercorn Creek drinking water source daily.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and local municipalities allow these fundamental areas for flood passages to be turned into concrete pads and giant storage buildings. The communities impacted not only see the effects of the warehouses themselves but the increased commercial truck traffic as well.
These commercial developments in precious wetlands reached a dangerous point last week when Effingham County Commissioners agreed to rezone the property right next door to the drinking water intake for Chatham, Effingham, and parts of Bryan counties.
Using language like "We trust the clean water act and the feds to protect us" the commissioners chose to go forward with permitting a warehouse development.
Those commissioners attempted to use the reasoning that the warehouses would be downstream from the intake, avoiding the fact that the Savannah River in the area flows based on the tide.
400,000 people rely on Abercorn Creek drinking water source daily.
THIS IS A CLEAN WATER CRISIS...Effingham County isn't trying to build a commercial warehouse facility a few miles from a drinking water pumping station, the county is looking a the property right next door.
Imagine a spill or worse a fire at the warehouse complex. The runoff would impact the delicate waterway of Abercorn Creek likely before the critical water intake system could be shut down. The impact of such a vulnerable piece of the water system for so many, being so close to an industrial operation, can not become a reality. |
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the abercorn creek site
This industrial development would put a warehouse facility in the wetlands of Abercorn Creek.
“There have been a series of warehouse that have been permitted in the swamp surrounding a drinking water intake. That would put this drinking water intake in a very high risk area, which is honestly terrifying."
-TONYA BONITATIBUS / RIVERKEEPER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
this problem is making news...
Vital wetlands are being traded for commercial development and it's becoming dangerous
TOGETHER WE CAN PROTECT THE DRINKING WATER FOR CHATHAM, BRYAN, AND EFFINGHAM COUNTIES. THIS DEVELOPMENT ISN'T WORTH THE RISK.
