I reached my diamond jubilee earlier this year: a three-quarter-century birthday that hit me harder than I expected. The frightening state of our country and the world was (and continues to be) a significant factor in my angst – joining the unavoidable old-age aches and pains and memory lapses. Even so, I’m proud to have reached this milestone in basic good health (knock on wood) and with family, projects, and travel that keep me interested and busy.
Like most people my age, I’m also reflecting on the past; well, the parts I can still remember. Landscapes, people, adventures, failures, loves, accomplishments, and even words. My family and I are word people, not so much numbers. While many words and phrases come to mind to color my professional and personal life, one is at the top of the heap. Those who worked with me at Chattahoochee Riverkeeper during my 21 years with the organization know that word well. It’s persistence. Pleasant persistence, when possible. Dogged, indefatigable, and (usually) never-ending persistence, when necessary.
Sewer Redux
For the past 32 years, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) has persisted in its efforts to restore and defend the hardest-working river in Georgia. That labor is varied, challenging, and frustrating, but also satisfying, as I describe in my memoir, Keeping the Chattahoochee (UGA Press, 2023). Five million people depend on this waterway, which flows diagonally across north Georgia from the mountains, through Atlanta, to the Alabama state line, then downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. It supplies drinking water and so much more.
From CRK’s beginning on March 1, 1994 – and continuing virtually non-stop today–the organization has focused a significant amount of its time and resources on the city of Atlanta’s compliance with clean water laws. The Chattahoochee downstream of the city was considered one of the most polluted waterways in Georgia in the 1980s and 90s. Atlanta regularly discharged untreated sewage and polluted stormwater into the river and its tributaries at least three to four times per month–and had been doing so for decades.
When state and federal agencies repeatedly failed to take any meaningful action to clean up the bacteria-laden water that threatened public health, recreation, wildlife, and property values, CRK filed and won a federal Clean Water Act lawsuit in the late 1990s. For years, the organization persisted in court, with the media, elected officials, and neighborhood groups, as it also regularly monitored the river.
Decades of Vigilance
Following its court win, CRK spent more years working with Atlanta to help raise funds to implement a mandated sewer system overhaul and then verify that those repairs had resulted in cleaner water. The organization’s monitoring persistence led to the discovery of dozens of small pipes that had been overlooked and were continuing to contaminate streams flowing through neighborhoods. Working with the city, this oversight was corrected.
A few years after “Sewer Mayor” Shirley Franklin’s two terms ended in 2010 – and two billion dollars were spent on sewer system repair – the river and its tributaries were dramatically cleaner. More than three decades of relentless effort by CRK and many others had resulted in the recovery of 60 miles of the Chattahoochee, urban tributaries, and a downstream lake. The city prospered, as major downtown development projects could at last be serviced by the updated sewer system. Vacant land along the long-blighted river was improved with homes and businesses. It became possible to safely boat and fish in the water. The visionary RiverLands project was launched.
Second Lawsuit Settled
Urban infrastructure requires constant monitoring and proactive maintenance by competent, transparent managers. As the years passed, CRK continued to take water samples in the Chattahoochee and its tributaries during the Reed, Lance-Bottoms, and now Dickens administrations. Unfortunately, city officials too often turned their attention to other municipal programs, apparently believing that Atlanta’s massive water treatment systems had been permanently “fixed.” People were hired to manage these systems who were not all sufficiently transparent, honest, or competent; one of those is in jail and another was fired two years ago.
During this time, the city’s R.M. Clayton sewage treatment plant, its largest, began to deteriorate. Three years ago, CRK’s samples of river water at the plant revealed significant ongoing pollution problems. The water being discharged into the Chattahoochee contained harmful levels of bacteria and other pollutants. Discussions with the city and state and federal agencies failed to yield a comprehensive plan to overhaul the plant in an expedited fashion. With no other choice, CRK sued Atlanta in September 2024 – 29 years after the organization filed its first Clean Water Act lawsuit against the city.
In February, a federal judge finalized and approved a settlement to resolve the second lawsuit, reaffirming the city’s commitment to invest tens of millions of dollars in new equipment, upgrades, and repairs over the next 60 months. According to Jason Ulseth, CRK’s riverkeeper and executive director, these improvements will continue to safeguard the river for all who depend on her.
Persistence for the common good–for our collective well-being–sustains democracy. It fosters the continuation of fair elections, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights and civil liberties. None of these things are a given. Naively, I used to think they largely were. No one should ever give up on a clean and healthy environment – or on fairness, equality, social justice, and democracy. No action is too small to make a difference.
Keep moving. Keep pushing. Keep persisting!