Altamaha Riverkeeper

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Altamaha Riverkeeper

Join Altamaha Riverkeeper to protect and restore the habitat, water quality, and the flow of Georgia’s largest watershed : www.altamahariverkeeper.org

What does the ALTAMAHA RIVERKEEPER do? The Altamaha Riverkeeper works to restore and protect the habitat, water quality, and flow of the Ocmulgee, Oconee, Ohoopee and Altamaha Rivers and their tributaries in the 14,000 square mile watershed from Stone Mountain & Hartsfield Airport to the famous marshes of Glynn County and the Golden Isles. How we work
We monitor our waterways and respond to citize

n complaints about pollution. We identify locations where pollutants are discharged and use water testing and site inspection to determine if these problems are in violation of state, local or federal law. We alert the authorities to the issue and work with them to eliminate or reduce the problem. In cases where regulatory agencies refuse to act, we take action to rally public support and, if need be, resort to legal action. The Riverkeeper is effective because . . . The Riverkeeper researches the facts and potential solutions. The Riverkeeper works collaboratively with conservation partners, communities, and regulators to attempt voluntary remediation. Our Administrator sends press releases to media in the affected area so they can make the public aware of the problem, its causes, and any health risks as well as environmental impacts. If the pollution is illegal, the Riverkeeper ensures that the proper regulatory agencies enforce the law; and, if they will not, works with environmental attorneys to enforce the law through the courts.

03/11/2026

For now, Sams said, the only real check on data center development in the basin is local government. “The only thing that’s really standing in the way of these things being built and becoming operational is the city councils and the county commissions,” he said.

Read more at: https://www.macon.com/news/environment/article314935084.html =cpy

Many facilities have tapped into city water systems through municipal water permits, avoiding the industrial withdrawal review required for direct river users.

02/04/2026

Fletcher Sams, head of the Altamaha Riverkeeper organization, told city council members the financial windfall would come with environmental consequences, most stemming from Georgia Power’s coal-fired Plant Scherer, about 20 miles away from the data center site.

“You will continue to see fish consumption advisories for mercury in fish tissue for all surrounding water bodies, including Lake Juliette, Lake Tobesofkee, High Falls Lake and the Ocmulgee River,” Sams said, because of emissions from Plant Scherer.

An executive order by President Donald Trump recently exempted Plant Scherer and similar plants from a more stringent Biden-era mercury pollution rule. Georgia Power had been slated to close Plant Scherer before the data center boom. Now it and its sister facility, Plant Bowen in North Georgia, will continue to operate for the foreseeable future.

Sams also warned about new fine particulate pollution, the kind that makes old-fashioned smog — which, in turn, leads to respiratory illness — from the fleet of diesel-powered backup electrical generation currently proposed for the data center.

"Those generators are about the size of what y'all are sitting behind right there," Sams told the council, gesturing to their dais. "About an 18-wheeler size. A thousand of those."

Those generators would be run at least monthly just to ensure they would work should an emergency come.

Over the objections of many residents and the recommendation of its own planning and zoning board, city leaders in Forsyth approved a rezoning of a swath of timberland for a hyperscale data center.

01/16/2026

Once a niche policy concern, data centers have become an increasingly potent issue in Middle Georgia, where residents, environmental advocates and rival politicians are clashing over the costs and benefits of the massive facilities.

“I’ve worked in environmental advocacy for over a decade, and I’ve never seen the groundswell of organic local opposition that we are seeing now with data centers,” said Fletcher Sams, the Altamaha Riverkeeper and a critic of the projects.

Democrats are hoping concerns over a $21 billion data center near Forsyth could help flip a Republican-held seat in the Georgia General Assembly.

01/05/2026

“In Middle Georgia, the biggest source is going to be the coal, the coal-fired power plant, Plant Scherer,” said Dr. Christie Bridges with Mercer University.

With coal the biggest culprit, according to Bridges, Altamaha Riverkeeper Fletcher Sams says the concern could worsen as power providers do all they can to meet exponentially rising demand for electricity.

In addition to the growing power demand, federal regulators are actively delaying and reconsidering pollution rules for coal-fired power plants — including granting temporary exemptions to Georgia Power’s largest units.

“This comes at a time where Plant Scherer has received a presidential exception from the MATS rule governing mercury discharge, and the EPA is considering eliminating all together other environmental controls such as the CCR rule and clean power plant rule that currently protect residents,” said Sams.

Mercury persists in fish across Middle Georgia rivers. Growing power demand and regulatory delays may slow progress, keeping advisories in place.

12/18/2025

A proposed ATV park in Long County is facing opposition from environmental groups and neighbors who say the location could cause environmental damage and safety concerns.

Maggie Van Cantfort of the Altamaha Coastkeeper said the proposed location raises concerns about wetland protection.

“Jones Creek runs through the property, then you have residential property, waste water facility, cemetery and school zone,” Van Cantfort said.

Van Cantfort said her organization wants to know if other locations in the county have been considered.

A proposed ATV park in Long County is facing opposition from environmental groups and neighbors who say the location could cause environmental damage and safety concerns.

12/05/2025

Late last month, the department approved new regional planning procedures for data centers above a certain square footage. But before that, the DRI process had been paused for months while the agency crafted the new data center guidelines.

The hiatus triggered worries that communities were effectively blindfolded while data centers surged. Even with new disclosure rules in place, Sams of the Altamaha Riverkeeper says there’s still a troubling lack of information available.

Of the 26 data centers he’s tracking across his vast river basin that stretches from Middle Georgia to the coast, he said he has water withdrawal estimates for fewer than half.

“There’s not enough information for me to tell you what the water impacts are,” Sams said.

As areas around Atlanta have moved to curtail data center development, tech giants are scouring rural areas to plant massive server farms.

12/01/2025

The lack of information is a problem for environmental advocates like Fletcher Sams, executive director of the Altamaha Riverkeeper.

“Here’s what I don’t know: I don’t know how many megawatts it is. I also don’t know the cooling technology that they will use to cool the chips,” he said. “Those things are very important for me to know because I’ve got 24 other data centers projected to come into that basin. Between now and 2060, that region is also going to see approximately 740,000 new residents.”

A massive data center project backed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his family could be coming to Butts County, but many of the project’s details are still unknown.

11/19/2025

Join us tomorrow at 7PM with our friends at the Patagonia Atlanta Beltline location for a special screening of "Saving Juliette", a short investigative documentary from filmmakers Evey Wilson Wetherbee and Grant Blankenship. The film tells the story of the residents of Juliette Georgia’s struggle to find answers when they find that their drinking water is contaminated with coal ash from the largest coal-fired power plant in the country.

We'll have a short meet and greet before the film for guests to enjoy some Glide pizza and refreshments. Stick around after the screening for a Q&A with the film makers.

Visit Patagonia Atlanta Beltline—located at 124 Krog St NE—for the latest outdoor gear. View store hours, directions and connect to our Instagram here.

10/07/2025

Not enough water to go around?

While that would free up a great deal of water for usage in other facilities, Sams fears Plant Scherer won’t be able to retire on schedule — because the influx of data centers is pushing up the demand for energy in Georgia. If the retirement timeline for Plant Scherer is extended, that assumed surplus won’t be available, Sams says. “Every DRI that was done in the Middle and Upper Ocmulgee with the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Middle Georgia Regional Commission are basing their information on the Middle Ocmulgee Regional Water Plan,” Sams said. “That water plan assumes that we’re going to have 72 million gallons a day in water savings when Scherer retires.”

“(These) data centers are not going to allow that retirement.”

Read more at: https://www.macon.com/news/local/article312370717.html =cpy

As data centers multiply in Georgia, the Altamaha Riverkeeper warns the state may be overestimating future water supplies.

09/19/2025

Sams also worries about how much water the data centers will pull from the river. That’s even with the promise that the millions of gallons required to cool the Twiggs center will come from a one-time draw of water to be trapped in an enclosed loop system.

What that misses, Sams said, is the fact that generating electricity at Plant Scherer also requires millions of gallons of water. Keeping the plant open also postpones promises to return that water to the Ocmulgee’s flow.

“It doesn't matter to us if it's getting sucked out upstream at Scherer or locally down here,” Sams said.

Attracted by lots of electricity and few people, out-of-state land speculators have secured zoning for a 900 MW data center in Twiggs County in Middle Georgia.

09/18/2025

Sams, the executive director of Altamaha Riverkeeper, says he is particularly concerned about the potential strain on Middle Georgia’s water resources, which he said are already facing a deficit in coming years because of rising demand in the Altamaha River basin, including from data centers.

“They’re going to be sucking 17.2 million gallons a day upstream a day to provide power,” Sams says of the Pine Ridge Technology Park’s water footprint — due to the massive amount of water needed to produce power at coal-fired Plant Scherer, just north of Macon, about 40 miles northwest of the Twiggs County site.

Plant Scherer was originally slated for retirement in 2030, but utility Georgia Power now plans to continue operating the plant due to rising power demand, largely driven by data centers, according to reporting by the Energy & Policy Institute think tank.

At full capacity, Plant Scherer is one of the most polluting power plants in the nation in terms of climate-heating carbon dioxide and particulate matter harmful to human health, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents call for more transparency around “hyperscale” data center announced last month for Twiggs County.

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Brunswick, GA

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http://www.altamahariverkeeper.org/

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