Marsh Protection Editorial Response
Editors:
Kudos to the editors of The Savannah Morning News for their insightful defense of Georgia's coastal marshes.
(Don't trash the marsh, July 9.)
As further troubling evidence of the threats against which this defense is needed, consider official state-issued
reports about "impaired waters" - those that fail to meet federal Clean Water Act standards for fishing, drinking,
and/or swimming.
According to these standards, more than 60% of the waters sampled in Georgia are impaired, and, given current trends,
conditions are likely to get worse before they get better. As the downstream receivers of pollution coming from about two-thirds
of Georgia draining into the Atlantic Ocean through five river systems, coastal residents suffer the brunt of the problem.
In the face of rapid growth, this is all the more reason why we need to take careful steps to do whatever we can to protect both our
fragile environment and the robust business activity dependent on fisheries, water quality, and eco-tourism - worth more than one billion
dollars a year and supporting some 40,000 jobs here.
Our tidal marshes are both the nursery and lifeblood of this productive environmental and economic engine. We cannot afford to allow one
sector - real estate development - to compromise the future of all other interests, including many that already responsibly derive their
family income from nature's bounty.
As our successful appeals of several ill-considered marsh permits have shown, the law is on the public's side, thanks to the wisdom of our
legislators who passed the Coastal Marshlands Protection Act in 1970.
Let's make sure that any new rules for uplands development will honor that legacy.
~ David C. Kyler
Executive Director
Center for a Sustainable Coast
Saint Simons Island, Georgia
July 10, 2006
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