Georgia Power announced on Thursday, January 31, 2019, their plans for the decertification of Plant Hammond, a coal-fired power plant located West of Rome, Georgia on the Coosa River. In recent years, Georgia Power has slowed updates for the 1954 plant to a halt, and this announcement did not surprise many. Currently, the Hammond property houses four coal ash ponds. The ponds store coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal to generate electricity, which contains a large number of toxic…
CRBI, Georgia Highlands College, and the Berry College Environmental Studies program have teamed up to co-sponsor a special screening of the 2018 Rome International Film Festival Audience Award winner for Featured Films, To Kingdom Come, at Heritage Hall Centre Stage on February 21, 2019 at 6pm. To Kingdom Come presents the multi-generational relationship between General Electric and the Rome community. The story is told from the unique and diverse perspectives of the earliest employees of the Rome GE transformer plant, local riverkeepers…
Recent Berry College graduate Ashley Ray joined the Coosa River Basin Initiative (CRBI) staff as Outreach Coordinator earlier this month. A Chattanooga native, Ray previously served as a Crew Member for the Southeast Conservation Corp based out of Chattanooga, where she spent several months building and restoring trail systems along the Hiwassee River to prevent excess rainwater runoff. She is a 2015 graduate of Berry College, where she studied Environmental Science. She is currently seeking a Masters in Business Administration…
Coal Ash is the byproduct of burning coal to generate electricity. It also contains several toxic, harmful substances that are known to cause cancer, impact child development, cause kidney and liver failure, and a litany of other health problems. Traditionally, this material has been held in coal ash ponds that surround the coal-fired power plants. Unfortunately, Georgia Power’s coal ash ponds across the state are not lined and a recent report from Earthjustice, utilizing Georgia Power’s data from test wells,…
We are proud to be among the 2018 Grantees of the Community Foundation of Greater Rome. Their support will allow us to kick off a weekly bacterial monitoring program at popular boat launches with the help of our wonderful volunteers. Read more here.
CRBI Wins Victory For Coosa River Fish; Plant Hammond Water Intake Must Be Improved The Coosa River Basin Initiative, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, recently won a legal challenge to a Clean Water Act permit issued to one of the oldest coal-fired power plants still operating in Georgia. Based on the administrative law judge’s ruling, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division must improve permit conditions by selecting a stop-gap measure to reduce the number of fish and aquatic species…
