BRUNSWICK, Ga. — How close do you live to one of the country's most toxic areas?
Glynn County is home to four federal toxic waste sites called superfunds. On Saturday, you can learn how they could impact you in what Glynn Environmental Coalition is calling a 'superfund field trip.'
“The main way that people are directly impacted from the superfund sites in our community is through seafood," said Rachael Thompson, executive director at Glynn Environmental Coalition. "It's very important to know that the advisories in the area, except for a very few small areas, are not 'do not eat' advisories. They are consumption guidelines."
Researchers at Emory University are conducting an exposure study screening residents for chemicals.
Glynn County’s superfund sites are LCP Chemicals, Terry Creek, Hercules 009 and Brunswick Wood Preserving. LCP Chemicals and Terry Creek are in the process of being cleaned up.
It’s been years in the making. The Environmental Protection Agency's superfund program to clean up sites was established in 1980.
"When LCP was initially listed in the 1990s, it was one of the top 100 national disasters," Thompson said. "Some of the technologies that they're implementing here they've never done anywhere else because the problems have never existed anywhere else."
The ongoing cleanup at LCP Chemicals is visible from Georgia 303, but is difficult to see because of the distance over the marsh. The cleanup is easier to see at the Terry Creek site near F.J Torras Causeway.
"The ditch itself is where wastewater, and we're talking about industrial wastewater, starting in 1911, was discharged into our waterways," Thompson said about the Terry Creek site. "So it's over 100 years of industrial wastewater that was dumped into Dupree Creek that leads to Terry Creek and many of those years were without regulation."
Thompson says there will be EPA meetings this summer and you can learn how to get involved with them on the superfund field trip.
"If your environment is safe and protected, your people are going to be safe and protected and your economy is also going to benefit from that," she said. "So all those things are interconnected. That's why we think that people should care."
Sign up to go on the superfund field trip here. It's a free event and the meeting spot is Lanier Plaza at 1923 Glynn Ave. in Brunswick at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Transportation will be provided for the first six people who RSVP.
Learn here why neighbors are calling for accountability following multiple recent industrial disasters in Glynn County.