Franklin Springs Mayor Responds to Citizens Comments at FR BOC March Work Session

As the controversy regarding a possible rendering plant planned for property in Franklin Springs and the planned larger wastewater treatment plant continues, Mayor Lee Moore is responding to claims made by citizens at the recent Franklin County Commissioners’ work session.

One of the first citizens to speak at that work session during the Public Comment section was Andrew Crump, who handed out an Antidegradation Analysis for the City of Franklin Springs from the Georgia Environmental Division.

The report, issued in April 2024, included several appendices.

In Appendix F entitled Industrial Flow Documentation, there are emails between two Pilgrim’s Pride executives, Mark Gibson and Brian Paulson, John Phillips of Phillips Technical Services, Inc., Wade Tanner of Reid Engineering, and Mayor Moore.

Two of the emails concerned the daily waste load of a large Pilgrim’s Pride rendering plant.

This week, Mayor Lee Moore said those emails concerned tests required by the EPD on the soil and capacity loads at the new wastewater treatment plant for whatever kind of industry might come to the City.

Moore added that any kind of industry that would locate on that site on 29 would have to conform to certain size specifications in order fit on the property.

Another concern by citizens and some of the County Commissioners was the effect a larger wastewater treatment plant and a rendering plant would have on the Broad River.

Moore showed a map of the Savannah River Basin that includes the Broad River Basin, which is a major tributary. The map, provided by the Georgia EPD (Broad River Basin(1)includes all of the entities that release treated water into the Broad.

WLHR News has also obtained a report from the EPD entitled, “Total Maximum Daily Load Evaluation for Three Stream Segments in the Savannah River Basin for Fecal Coliform,” dated 2010.

Listed in that report are the State requirements for any entity wishing to release wastewater into the Basin, including the Broad River, and other Savannah River Basin waterways.  All waste and wastewater must be treated according to those guidelines before it can be released into any Savannah River waterway, including the Broad. The report is on file with the US Environmental Protection Agency. EPD_Final_Savannah_Fecal_TMDL_2010

It also lists the farms and businesses in our area as of 2010 that release treated wastewater (defined as “registered liquid manure,” and “registered dry manure poultry operations” – over 30 in Franklin County alone as of 2010) into the waterways of the Savannah River Basin.  And it goes into an extensive narrative on the importance of protecting wildlife that make those waterways their home.

In a compilation of reports on polluters into the Broad River and the Savannah River Basin as a whole, from the EPD, one state, “Franklin County is a major contributor to fecal coliform pollution in the Savannah River Basin, primarily due to nonpoint sources such as poultry operations, livestock grazing, and increasing use of septic systems. These pollutants directly impact water quality, necessitating public education and
strategic environmental management.”  Franklin_County_Coliform_Report_2010_to_2024

Given the Broad is one of the most “pristine” waterways in Georgia, it appears that as of 2010, everyone listed in the report, along with the current map from the EPD showing those businesses and government entities, including wastewater treatments plants such as the one in Franklin Springs and Franklin County, are following those guidelines.

You can hear the entire interview with Mayor Moore on this Sunday’s edition of Community Forum heard at noon here on 92.1 Lake Hartwell Radio.