Research fund will reach communities contaminated by Superfund sites in Coastal Georgia

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The LCP Chemicals Superfund Site, Feb. 7, 2024, Brunswick, GA.

Credit: Justin Taylor/The Current

Six research institutions, led by Atlanta’s Emory University, will use money from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences to investigate the depth of exposure on humans and the environment from Superfund sites on Georgia’s coast.  

An awarded $15 million over five years will fund the state's first Superfund Research Center, for work in Glynn County, home to Brunswick and St. Simon's Island.  

There, four Superfund sites classified by the Environmental Protection Agency and 10 other hazardous waste sites identified by Georgia's Environmental Protection Division, have exposed the people and the environment to so-called forever chemicals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as well as the understudied pesticide, toxaphene, a result of past industrial manufacturing. 

• RELATED: A closer look: Glynn’s Superfund sites

Emory has already been testing residents' blood for exposure to the chemicals, and found higher than normal levels in most. The federal grant will fund more testing and research with the goal to map out how that human exposure happens, said Emory’s Dana Barr, the center’s director. 

Because blood tests do not reveal how recently people were exposed to certain chemicals, Barr said it's important to find out if that exposure is ongoing, like through food or water. 

"We can prevent further exposure, and then we can try to understand what these chemicals are doing inside their bodies to them," Barr said. "More than anything, I think the people in the area really want answers." 

They'll be working with local stakeholders like the Glynn Environmental Coalition, which has been raising the alarm about pollution since the 1990s. The group does regular water testing and has released guides for safe seafood consumption. 

The Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Georgia, Spelman College and the Morehouse School of Medicine are also included as funded partners, as well as Texas Tech University. 

Of additional importance is coming up with a remediation plan. The EPA has performed some of this already, such as by removing toxic sludge at the Hercules Landfill site and capping contaminated sediment at the LCP Chemicals site.

But Barr said the Superfund Research Center's considering a more advanced engineering processes that could actually remove toxins from bodies of water, specifically those that are part of fragile ecosystems. 

"Because we're concerned if you have extreme weather like flooding, which is not uncommon in this area, that these chemicals might be released and migrate to other areas in the marshland," Barr said. "And so what we want to is go in and actually break these chemicals down, break them into components that are not toxic." 

This work by the center, which spans physically across the campuses of all involved partners, will begin later this year.