Don Stack, a Savannah lawyer representing the Riverkeeper, said too much time has passed with no action for Killebrew to use that argument. Killebrew admits some time has elapsed since the 1980s when he first became mayor and sought funding to upgrade or replace Cochran's 30-acre oxidation pond that serves as the sole treatment facility. Cochran is not unique, Stack said. His office has sent a letter to Lumber City stating the intent to sue for the same reasons and has warned Amercord Inc., a company that makes steel belts for radial tires in Lumber City, that it is dumping more copper and arsenic into the Ocmulgee than its state permit allows. In all, the law firm is looking at 26 other facilities along Georgia streams, all of which may be violating discharge limits, he said.
Most people think polluters are big corporate bad guys.
There may be other problems along the way. Hawkinsville sits on a high bluff overlooking the Ocmulgee but with less than 4,000 residents causes few problems. The same is true for Abbeville, a farming community of less than 1,000 that sits on the edge of the Ocmulgee's western flood plain. The cities are likely to grow, however, if the state's system of developmental highways bring new businesses. The Golden Isles Highway, essentially a project to four-lane the roads that connect Macon to Brunswick by way of Cochran, Eastman and McRae, is under construction just across the river.