Our President:
Cletus W. Bergen, II, Esq
WHO WE ARE & WHY WE ARE
It smelled like rotten eggs in Savannah during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. It was the smell of methyl mercaptans coming from the Union Camp pulp mill on the north and west side of town. Back then the air smelled as bad as the air currently does when passing the Riceboro Paper Plant on I-95, 30 miles south of Savannah. The smell was extremely embarrassing for members of the Savannah community. I can distinctly remember my first cousin from Cincinnati telling me: “Oh yes, Savannah. That’s the town where you have to hold your nose when you come across the bridge.”
On December 22, 1982, Dr. John Northup, William Dickinson, Joann Brandt and Jeffrey Bridges formed a non-profit corporation known as Citizens for Clean Air and Water, Inc. The corporate purpose was “protection of public health and welfare by defending our fundamental human right to breathe clean air and enjoy a healthful environment in Coastal Georgia for the present and future generations”. The actual date of incorporation was December 30, 1982.
Dr. Northup and the other Clean Air members went public with their objection to the offensive smell in Savannah by holding seminars about the issue and writing letters to the editor in the Savannah paper. Previously the idea of “the smell of money” and the fact that Union Camp employed roughly five to six thousand (5,000 - 6,000) Savannahians squelched any opposition to the plant. The battle for Clean Air became particularly vehement during the Vision 2020 movement that occurred in the 90’s. Forum after forum was held and many sub-committees were established concerning multiple issues around the City of Savannah. The goal of the Vision 2020 was to have opposing factions concerning public issues meet and discuss the issues and come up with a written consensus statement of the points of agreement about community goals of the year 2020. The environmental committee of which the Citizens for Clean Air volunteers were members
went head on with Union Camp officials. Unfortunately no consensus was ever reached and independent position statements were generated.
In the meantime, Union Camp began to place scrubbers in their stacks and the air in Savannah got better. Occasionally today we have upsets with the pungent sulfur, or burnt coffee, smell coming across the City. When it happens, the air is bad. A blue haze covers the City. The smell permeates the Old Savannah gray brick buildings and it causes a stink within the buildings. The only way to rid the buildings of the smell is to open the windows and/or spray air fresheners. Fortunately the air in Savannah is better now than it once was, as is the cleanliness of the River.
Later on the members of Citizens for Clean Air and Water became concerned about the water table in Savannah, noting that Union Camp was essentially taking the same amount of water per day from the aquifer as the daily consumption of the general public in Chatham County. The cones of depression were under the City of Savannah, as they were under Jesup, St. Marys, Riceboro and other pulp mill towns. Salt water from the ocean was intruding under Hilton Head Island, polluting their drinking sources in some areas. In Brunswick a vertical salt-water intrusion developed, polluting portions of its aquifer water. The Floridian aquifer under lower South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida is one of the purest and cleanest aquifers in the world. That is one of the main reasons that the pulp mills moved south. Large quantities of clean fresh water and an abundance of pine trees are necessary to make paper.
Once again, Clean Air and Water members wrote editorials to the newspaper and public forums were held. The awareness of the public broadened. Now the availability of clean water has become a critical issue in the County, Municipal and State Legislature.
It is very important that a reasonable balance is struck between the need for industry, jobs, and the economic welfare of the community, as opposed to the need for fresh, clean air and water.
Cletus Bergen II
OUR HISTORY OF LOGOS:
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