Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper

Ogeechee Riverkeeper's mission is to protect, preserve, and improve the water quality of the Ogeechee River watershed.

We see ourselves as stewards for both the watershed and the local communities who call the watershed home. We seek to be bridge builders first by empowering local voices to become stewards of the watershed and instilling a deep sense of interconnectedness between the past, present, and future of life along and within the Ogeechee's local waterways.

We aim to accomplish this mission through specific goals and activities within three distinct program areas:

1. Watershed Watch
-Provide citizens with annual Georgia Adopt-A-Stream training workshops on chemical, biological, and bacteriological monitoring.
-Identify and monitor point and non-point sources of water pollution in partnership with public and private scientific institutions.
-Respond to and track Pollution Hotline calls and citizen complaints with follow-up to appropriate agencies.
-Review and comment on proposed permits for water use, land disturbance, discharge, and other regulatory issues that impact the Ogeechee watershed.
-Hold polluters accountable through legal and legislative actions.

2. Community-Based Learning
-Recruit and train local volunteer monitors through the Watershed Watch Program's Adopt-A-Stream workshops.
-Build and maintain partnerships with watershed K-12 schools to develop lesson plans, curriculum, and service learning opportunities.
-Organize paddle trips and hikes with naturalists, scientists, and historians.
-Partner with watershed communities to organize local clean-ups of stream banks, public landings, road ways, etc.
-Organize advocacy training programs for local communities.
-Collaborate with creative artists on educational and outreach programs.

3. Water Advocacy and Communication
-Mobilize communities in the Ogeechee watershed to advocate for protection of drinkable, swimmable, and fishable waters.
-Translate and disseminate science-based information on regional and local threats to the Ogeechee's natural and cultural heritage.
-Partner with river and coastal communities across southeast Georgia and the South Atlantic region to promote and protect clean water.
-Build and maintain relationships with federal, state, and local elected officials representing the watershed's 22 counties.

We are guided in our work at Ogeechee Riverkeeper by 4 core principles:

1. Informed Advocacy : listen and learn before action
2. Inclusive Communities : cultural connections to place matter
3. Interconnected Landscapes : ecological connectivity matters
4. Interpersonal Empowerment : our differences are what make us all stronger together

In summary, Ogeechee Riverkeeper's strategy is that in order to be effective advocates we must listen and learn before we act; to be effective monitors and educators we must ensure that cultural connections to place and ecological connectivity are accounted for; and to be effective long-term stewards of our watershed we must emphasize that while we may have differences in opinions and interests that those differences are also what make us stronger together.

With over a decade of experience working to protect our waterways and local communities we have built a strong network of individuals and organizations. Ogeechee Riverkeeper is also a Member of the Waterkeeper Alliance and a leadership member of the Georgia Water Coalition.

Our board of directors and staff of accomplished professionals are dedicated to ensuring that the organization meets our goals and is responsive to the needs of our membership.

Our members and a corps of dedicated volunteers monitor our waterways, assist us in clean-ups, and help us stay on top of potential pollution throughout the watershed. Our two-person full-time staff is located in Savannah, Georgia with partners throughout the watershed from Wadley to Sunbury to Claxton, and we have a part-time staffer located in Statesboro, Georgia. We have a 24-hour pollution hotline and motorized boat for on-water investigations and monitoring.

Damon Mullis, the Riverkeeper and Executive Director, grew up in rural south Georgia where he spent his free time outdoors fishing and exploring local rivers and streams. His time in the great outdoors led to an appreciation of the natural world and a passion for understanding how it works, a quest that led him to Georgia Southern University where he earned bachelor’s and master’s of science degrees in biology.

His research has focused on how physical and chemical changes in freshwater ecosystems affect their biological communities with projects, including studies on the connectivity between rivers and floodplains, the effects of beaver dams on freshwater invertebrate communities, secondary production of macroinvertebrates, nutrient monitoring, and water quality monitoring in rivers and streams.

In response to one of the largest fish kills in Georgia's history, Ogeechee Riverkeeper actively addressed illegal pollution discharged into the river as well as the lack of environmental law enforcement by EPD. Concerned citizens lost trust in EPD, and looked to us for help. In July 2012, with the expertise of GreenLaw and Stack & Associates we filed a citizens' lawsuit under the U.S. Clean Water Act against King America Finishing for over six years of clean water law violations. In 2014, Ogeechee Riverkeeper and King America Finishing reached a settlement which includes a stricter discharge permit for wastewater (which is now treated to a cleaner standard than ever before), extensive monitoring of both the wastewater and the river itself, and funds set aside for river-specific projects.

We partner with the Georgia Water Coalition, a group of water advocates from across the State to push Georgia's legislators towards greater clean water protections. We are working to prevent HB545, a bill that would attract factory farming and pushing to deny a permit for a landfill in Screven County that would affect the watershed. Additionally, we are active in the fight to reduce coal ash in our state.

Building on our legacy fighting for clean water in Georgia, Ogeechee Riverkeeper continues to stand alongside local communities in this fight to ensure that our children have clean waterways, abundant wildlife and fisheries, and healthy communities for at least seven more generations.