Last week, I called Shannon Gregory (the Satilla Riverkeeper) and asked her what was the latest on the chicken houses on the banks of the Satilla River in Douglas. She told me Judge Kelly Brooks said he was going to make a ruling by Tuesday of this week, so I sent her a text on Wednesday to see what his ruling was. Apparently, he still had not made one and she said she was still waiting to find out herself.
Later in the evening, she sent me a text back and said we had won and the 60 chicken houses will not be allowed to be built on the 1,000 acres of land on the banks of the Satilla River.
This process would have raised about three million chickens at a time and would have been twice as large as Georgia's current biggest poultry farm, which operates 32 houses. This process would have been an environmental hazard for sure. I don’t even see how it made it this far with the judge having to look at the case. From what I have been able to find out, David Varnedore sold the 1,000 acres of land to several different companies and all of them from outof- state.
I am sure there are some not-so-happy people that had bought this land thinking they were going to make a lot of money with their chicken business and letting the waste just go straight into the Satilla River.
I want to thank Shannon Gregory of Satilla Riverkeeper for not giving up the fight for our beautiful Satilla River. Douglas is not that far upriver and just think of what we could and would be getting downstream from all the waste of three million chickens. It would have been more than we could handle.
