222
23.3 A Near-Perfect Mirror
Walking along the Oconee River, the major basin of which drains “5,330 square
miles,”
34
provides a salient, if disturbing, lookout over this chemistry of ecological
and human fiascos and, in the same instant, hopefulness.
35
A perfect mirror upon
catastrophic propensities and perpetual turns-of-conscience that together may galvanize twenty-first-century contemplations of what it is we are—the one species,
perhaps, that actually doubts its own kind, yet is too stubborn or dreamy to turn
back. Where would we go? Flint, Michigan?
Such reflections are additionally addled by the fact of January flooding, whose
aftermath translates to a swarm of high-intensity pollutants and debris fields
throughout the waterlogged oak-pine forest systems to both sides of the restive river.
36
The garbage load to this day is distributed everywhere one tries to walk: pools
of distinct sewage aftermath, toxic fecal coliform counts, storm wastes of every
conceivable chemistry. Side pools show evidence of algal build-up from thousands
of fertilizing-polluting points, nitrates, ammonia, their result being the abstraction
of oxygen and killing of fish. Right there, a decaying largemouth bass, in the very
zone of three protected riparian species: the Altamaha Arcmussel and Oconee
Burrowing Crayfish, in addition to the Robust Redhorse.
37
In its laborious turns the
life of the Oconee journeys due south of Milledgeville, beyond one of Georgia’s
most notable Public Liberal Arts Colleges, and also past the Bartram Forest Wildlife
Management Area, which abuts the most historically notorious psychiatric hospital
in the state.
Whatever the odd juxtaposition of history and contemporary life, nothing is as
striking as the mental and ecological problems of that garbage in the river—in the
microcosm of a perceptual instant, with eutrophic pools forming one after the other
as photosynthesis declines as a measure of excessive algal growth.
38
The banks
of the Oconee on this day represent a global syndrome, bringing back personal
34 See “Georgia River Network, https://garivers.org/oconee-river/, Accessed April 20, 2019.
35 See L. Shearer, L. “Athens streams show 15-year decline; leaky sewers, runoff likely culprits,”
2017, onlineathens.com. http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-05-02/athens-streams-show15-year-decline-leaky-sewers-runoff-likely-culprits, Accessed April 21, 2019.
36 See “Georgia River Network,” Biological Resources, https://garivers.org/oconee-river/, Accessed
April 21, 2019. See also “Policy Idea 2: Watershed Pollution in Athens Clarke County — Oconee
River Fertilizer and Sewage Pollution,” by Rachael Akinola, September 7, 2017, https://medium.
com/@RachaelFAkinola/policy-idea-2-watershed-pollution-in-athens-clarke-county-oconeeriver-fertilizer-and-sewage-a84dfbd78fad, Accessed April 21, 2019.
37 See “Georgia River Network,” Biological Resources, https://garivers.org/oconee-river/, Accessed
April 21, 2019.
38 See “Eutrophication: Causes, Consequences, and Controls in Aquatic Ecosystems,” by Michael
Chislock, M. F., Enrique Doster, E., Rachel A. Zitomer, R. A.lan E. Wilson, 2013, Nature Education
Knowledge 4(4):10, https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/eutrophication-causesconsequences-and-controls-in-aquatic-102364466, Accessed April 21, 2019.
23 A River Somewhere in Georgia
23.3 A Near-Perfect Mirror
Walking along the Oconee River, the major basin of which drains “5,330 square
miles,”
34
provides a salient, if disturbing, lookout over this chemistry of ecological
and human fiascos and, in the same instant, hopefulness.
35
A perfect mirror upon
catastrophic propensities and perpetual turns-of-conscience that together may galvanize twenty-first-century contemplations of what it is we are—the one species,
perhaps, that actually doubts its own kind, yet is too stubborn or dreamy to turn
back. Where would we go? Flint, Michigan?
Such reflections are additionally addled by the fact of January flooding, whose
aftermath translates to a swarm of high-intensity pollutants and debris fields
throughout the waterlogged oak-pine forest systems to both sides of the restive river.
36
The garbage load to this day is distributed everywhere one tries to walk: pools
of distinct sewage aftermath, toxic fecal coliform counts, storm wastes of every
conceivable chemistry. Side pools show evidence of algal build-up from thousands
of fertilizing-polluting points, nitrates, ammonia, their result being the abstraction
of oxygen and killing of fish. Right there, a decaying largemouth bass, in the very
zone of three protected riparian species: the Altamaha Arcmussel and Oconee
Burrowing Crayfish, in addition to the Robust Redhorse.
37
In its laborious turns the
life of the Oconee journeys due south of Milledgeville, beyond one of Georgia’s
most notable Public Liberal Arts Colleges, and also past the Bartram Forest Wildlife
Management Area, which abuts the most historically notorious psychiatric hospital
in the state.
Whatever the odd juxtaposition of history and contemporary life, nothing is as
striking as the mental and ecological problems of that garbage in the river—in the
microcosm of a perceptual instant, with eutrophic pools forming one after the other
as photosynthesis declines as a measure of excessive algal growth.
38
The banks
of the Oconee on this day represent a global syndrome, bringing back personal
34 See “Georgia River Network, https://garivers.org/oconee-river/, Accessed April 20, 2019.
35 See L. Shearer, L. “Athens streams show 15-year decline; leaky sewers, runoff likely culprits,”
2017, onlineathens.com. http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-05-02/athens-streams-show15-year-decline-leaky-sewers-runoff-likely-culprits, Accessed April 21, 2019.
36 See “Georgia River Network,” Biological Resources, https://garivers.org/oconee-river/, Accessed
April 21, 2019. See also “Policy Idea 2: Watershed Pollution in Athens Clarke County — Oconee
River Fertilizer and Sewage Pollution,” by Rachael Akinola, September 7, 2017, https://medium.
com/@RachaelFAkinola/policy-idea-2-watershed-pollution-in-athens-clarke-county-oconeeriver-fertilizer-and-sewage-a84dfbd78fad, Accessed April 21, 2019.
37 See “Georgia River Network,” Biological Resources, https://garivers.org/oconee-river/, Accessed
April 21, 2019.
38 See “Eutrophication: Causes, Consequences, and Controls in Aquatic Ecosystems,” by Michael
Chislock, M. F., Enrique Doster, E., Rachel A. Zitomer, R. A.lan E. Wilson, 2013, Nature Education
Knowledge 4(4):10, https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/eutrophication-causesconsequences-and-controls-in-aquatic-102364466, Accessed April 21, 2019.
23 A River Somewhere in Georgia