Frankly, I am somewhat abashed that I did not know the Riverkeeper movement had developed all over the south while I was languishing in New Hampshire. In any event, in this case it is the Altamaha Riverkeeper. org that's brought suit, after due notice, against Rayonier for dumping its wastewater into the Altmaha River virtually untreated. You can tell that from the company's plaint that they've reduced the color of their daily discharge by fifty percent. They've been working so hard to get the brown out and still people who actually want to eat the fish they catch aren't satisfied.
As an aside, I do want to point out that the Cons' ambition to teach people how to fish is significantly undermined when there are no fish in the rivers or oceans or those that have managed to survive are full of toxins.
Poor Rayonier may well feel put upon. After all, unlike one of their main competitors, Georgia Pacific, they didn't get acquired by the Koch Brothers and, indeed, their former CEO, Lee M. Thomas was retired from Georgia Pacific about the time the Kochs took over.
According to Thomas' biography:
Thomas, 62, has been a member of Rayonier’s Board of Directors since June 2, 2006. He was President and Chief Operating Officer and on the Board of Directors of Georgia-Pacific Corp. from 2002 until his retirement December 31, 2005, following Georgia-Pacific’s acquisition by Koch Industries.
...
During his 13-year career with Georgia-Pacific, Thomas held key executive positions overseeing wood products, pulp, paper and chemicals, and environmental and government affairs. Prior to Georgia-Pacific, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Law Companies Environmental Group Inc. from 1989-1993 and Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1985-1989.
Gee, Rayonier must have thought they had all the bases covered. Maybe, even in retirement, Thomas was just too danged busy:
Thomas serves on the boards of the Regal Entertainment Group, Airgas Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He graduated from the University of the South and has a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina.
...
Rayonier is a leading international forest products company with three core businesses: Timber, Real Estate and Performance Fibers. It owns, leases or manages 2.7 million acres of timber and land in the U.S., New Zealand and Australia. The company’s holdings include approximately 200,000 acres with residential and commercial development potential along the fast-growing Interstate 95 corridor between Savannah, Georgia, and Daytona Beach, Florida. Its Performance Fibers business is the world’s leading producer of high-value specialty cellulose fibers. Approximately 40 percent of the company’s sales are outside the U.S. to customers in more than 50 countries. Rayonier is structured as a real estate investment trust.
Now, the new CEO, since 2012,
Paul G. Boynton is fixing to
spin the specialty fibers component off. Perhaps cellulose for cigarette filters is not a growth industry and selling off
14,000 acres to the Nature Conservancy did not placate the environmental beast. Loss leaders, apparently, are just as common in real estate as at WallMart and similarly deceptive.
But, the locals weren't fooled and "Cleanup on the Altamaha" is what they want. After fifty years, it's about time.