In Georgia, a bold comeback for a dirty river

In Georgia, a bold comeback for a dirty river

The South River, my old haunting & hiking ground, is officially endangered but battling back

Last month, I saw an old friend show up in a surprising place.


I used to escape the home office each day with a walk along the South River near my former home in Conyers, Ga. To my shock, the group American Rivers added the South River to its annual list of the ten Most Endangered Rivers.

The designation is both good and bad news for the South River and its defenders, bringing stigma but also leverage to improve the river's condition.

South River's toxic load

South River Watershed Alliance

The river itself is a mix of good and bad, so we'll get the bad out of the way first: The South has its origins in small streams just south and east of downtown Atlanta. There, aging industrial parks, truck terminals, most of metro Atlanta's biggest landfills, crowded freeways, and one of the world's busiest airports all do their worst to give the river a troubled upbringing.

Just east of the city in DeKalb County, heavy rains frequently overwhelm the sanitary sewage system, giving the river arguably its worst problem. The American Rivers designation highlights DeKalb's battle against state and federal regulators and against a tenacious nonprofit, the South River Watershed Alliance. Citing the high costs of cleaning up its own mess, the county is in defiance of a Federal consent decree to do so.

Plastic pollution

South River Watershed Alliance

Then, there's the plastic. After those heavy rains, the river becomes a highway not just for tree limbs and other natural detritus but for fugitive lawnchairs, picnic coolers and two-liter soda bottles. They come to rest on riverbanks, coves or in boatslips at the 60-mile-long river's outlet at Jackson Lake.

A wild river, full of life

South River Watershed Alliance

But even through the harmful human impacts, nature rules the day, and more people are beginning to notice. Memorial Day means pink-and-white rhododendrons are ending their riverside rule and, in sunny spots, wild blackberries are there for the picking.

Kingfishers patrol their riverine habitat, sign the river is well-supplied with fish. Blue herons offer another sign of a comeback, but they're still not too keen on sharing the river with more and more humans.

At dusk and beyond, when the soothing sound of the barred owl turns frantic, it's a signal that they're eager to either mate or kill something.

Hiking haven

Hikers and cyclers are out to enjoy it all on a network of paved and dirt trails that will, if you've got the time and proper footwear, carry you literally to the next time zone, 75 miles west in Alabama. The PATH Foundation has built a network of government, corporate, and citizen supporters to bring North Georgia to nature, and vice versa.

Riparian comeback

So how does the tiny South River measure up against the other Most Endangered Streams?

This year's list includes a couple of hardy perennials at the top: No. 1 is the Lower Snake River, stuck in a decades-long effort by Native tribes and environmentalists to force the takedown of four aging hydroelectric dams that have devastated salmon runs.

In second place is the Lower Missouri. Upstream dams and an extensive levee system make the Missouri one of the most altered major waterways in the U.S.

Others include the Ipswich River in Massachusetts, a threatened drinking water source; and Minnesota's legendary Boundary Waters canoeing area, jeopardized by a nearby copper mining proposal.

But who doesn't love a riparian comeback? I'm no longer able to visit the South River, but I can still hear the rushing water, and the love-or-death owls.

Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra.

His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate, or publisher, Environmental Health Sciences.

Top photo of the South River canoeists courtesy South River Watershed Alliance

Two scientists in lab coats look at a computer screen displaying a colorful image from a molecular microscope.
Credit: NIH Image Gallery/Flickr

Federal health data removals leave scientists scrambling

Researchers are racing to preserve critical federal health data as the Trump administration removes online access to key government databases, raising fears about future disruptions.

Margaret Manto reports for Notus.

Keep reading...Show less
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
A group of young, diverse scientists work in a laboratory.
Credit: NIH Image Gallery/Flickr

Trump’s funding cuts threaten the backbone of U.S. research

Trump’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding cut targets “indirect costs,” the behind-the-scenes expenses that keep labs running, sparking a fierce backlash from universities and scientists who say it will cripple American innovation.

Carolyn Y. Johnson, Susan Svrluga, and Joel Achenbach report for The Washington Post.

Keep reading...Show less
Fire department personnel wearing protective gear walk along a street with the burned rubble of former homes.
Credit: CAL FIRE_Official/Flickr

Climate disasters are pushing society’s most vulnerable to the brink

The Los Angeles fires claimed 29 lives, most of them elderly, highlighting the deadly risks climate-intensified disasters pose to older adults.

Sarah Kaplan and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux report for The Washington Post.

Keep reading...Show less
Looking down on a city in the desert with mountains in the background.

Arizona’s developers fight water limits in a dark-money showdown

A dark-money-backed lawsuit is challenging Arizona’s groundbreaking limits on development in areas with rapidly disappearing groundwater, a move that could reshape water policy across the Southwest.

Katya Schwenk reports for The Lever.

Keep reading...Show less
A man in t-shirt and shorts digs in the sand next to a sign that says "sea turtle nest."

Major U.S. nature report in jeopardy due to Trump administration shutdown

Scientists were blindsided when the Trump administration killed a first-of-its-kind U.S. nature assessment, but key experts say they’ll finish it without government support.

Catrin Einhorn reports for The New York Times.

Keep reading...Show less
aerial photography of grass field with blue solar panels and a road.

Clean energy growth shattered records in 2024, but political uncertainty looms

Clean energy installations in the U.S. surged 47% last year, driven by tax credits and falling costs, but future growth faces challenges from the Trump administration’s policies.

Akielly Hu reports for Canary Media.

Keep reading...Show less
Donald Trump smiling at a campaign event

Trump defies court orders, continues to block climate funding

President Donald Trump has halted billions in Biden-era climate and infrastructure funds, despite court rulings ordering their release.

Jake Bittle reports for Grist.

Keep reading...Show less
From our Newsroom
wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

People  sitting in an outdoors table working on a big sign.

Op-ed: Why funding for the environmental justice movement must be anti-racist

We must prioritize minority-serving institutions, BIPOC-led organizations and researchers to lead environmental justice efforts.

joe biden

Biden finalizes long-awaited hydrogen tax credits ahead of Trump presidency

Responses to the new rules have been mixed, and environmental advocates worry that Trump could undermine them.

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Prisons, jails and detention centers are placed in locations where environmental hazards such as toxic landfills, floods and extreme heat are the norm.

Agents of Change in Environmental Justice logo

LISTEN: Reflections on the first five years of the Agents of Change program

The leadership team talks about what they’ve learned — and what lies ahead.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.