View a Citizen’s Guide to Environmental Protection and Justice in Georgia: Download Handbook

People of color and low-income Americans often suffer disproportionately from the effects of toxic pollution. In the last twenty years, significant evidence has emerged relating to the placement of landfills, truck depots, and incinerators in low-income neighborhoods; the disproportionate impact of air pollution on inner-city urban residents; and the high incidence of lead poisoning in Latino and African-American children. GreenLaw works to make the application and enforcement of Georgia’s environmental laws protect all Georgians equally.

With this aim in mind, GreenLaw has worked to provide high quality legal services to under-represented communities.  GreenLaw has:

• Helped produce a report on the health, environmental and quality of life impacts in the Newtown Community in Gainesville, Georgia.  View report
• Filed a lawsuit objecting to the EPD permit issued to build a coal-fired power plant in Early County, a low income county with the 11th highest air pollution emissions in the state.  More Info  
• Secured an order from the Environmental Protection Division requiring Land O’ Lakes-Purina Feed mill to stop emitting illegal levels of grain dust over the Newtown community in Gainesville.  More Info      
• Stopped diesel trucks from idling continuously just yards from residences in the Newtown community in Gainesville.      
• Educated citizens at public forums regarding their rights in preventing toxic pollution in their communities.     
• Evaluated a landfill proposal to ensure compliance with state and local solid waste management regulations and to ensure compliance with local zoning regulations. 
• Successfully challenged an air quality permit amendment submitted by Cargill in the Newtown community of Gainesville. As originally proposed, the permit amendment would have allowed a significant increase of SO2 emissions while allowing the company to avoid public participation requirements. Additionally, in light of GreenLaw’s opposition to the amendment, EPD requested a Toxic Impact Assessment before approving the facility’s use of landfill gas as fuel.
  
  In addition, GreenLaw continuously works to build and strengthen relationships with other social justice and environmental justice groups. For instance, GreenLaw:
  • Drafted the environmental justice statement for the 2007 Report issued by the Georgia Air Coalition.      
  • Worked with local groups and Global Community Monitor to organize the 2007 National Bucket Brigade Conference in Atlanta, “Community Environmental Monitoring and Empowerment, A Community Monitoring Fair and Training,” featuring speaker Dr. Robert Bullard. 
     
  In previous years, we have:
  • Prevented a regional landfill from being built in Taliaferro (pronounced “Toliver”) County that would have spanned almost 1000-acres located in sensitive wetland areas in close proximity to the Ogeechee River.  More info
  • Secured an order to close Waste Management’s Live Oak landfill in South DeKalb County – the largest landfill in Georgia and one of the top 10 largest in the nation.      
  • Assisted county officials across Georgia to enact local land use ordinances that are protective of public health and the environment.      
  • Prepared a model landfill ordinance to assist county officials in developing responsible solid waste management practices.      
  • Prepared a model assessment of toxic sites in the Ogeechee River Basin in rural Georgia, which will be used to assist citizens in other river basins in Georgia.      
  • Submitted an amicus brief on behalf of local citizens in Meriwether County in support of the constitutionality of a local land-use ordinance that protects critical drinking water supplies.