Brunswick, Georgia: The Environmental Injustice of the lasting legacy of chemical manufacturing and toxic pollution

The historic coastal city of Brunswick in Glynn County in southeastern Georgia has a significant early American history as the original capital city of Georgia, Savannah. The cities have a shared cultural genealogy of the Gullah Geechee people who were brought to the four southeastern states along the eastern Atlantic including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The Gullah Geechee are survivors of the Middle Passage, brought to the Americas as enslaved Africans, captured primarily from rice-producing and indigo regions in Western Africa. Today, the ethnic composition of Brunswick, GA is predominantly African American, with 60.4% identifying as Black or African American alone according to the United States Census 2022. The communities comprising the city of Brunswick have an unfortunately long history of colocation with industrial entities and concomitant exposure to pollution and adverse health impacts. As such, Brunswick has long been considered one of the most contaminated places in Georgia, with four (4) National Priority List (Superfund) sites designations - LCP Chemicals, Terry Creek, Hercules 009 and Brunswick Wood Preserving - within the city limits. A comprehensive presentation of the timeline of manufacturing (legacy and current), toxic footprint across the Brunswick environment, the impacts to residents and ecosystem (including the recent Pinova plant fire, and delayed alerts) will be delineated. In addition, and most critically, the voice of the community will be elevated in context of regulatory decision-making, clean up, scientific discourse, regulatory decision-making and enforcement, community engagement strategies, and ongoing biomonitoring through the lens of equity and environmental justice. The American Chemical Society meeting is an important venue to discuss and elevate the plight of small towns, especially those comprising predominantly communities of color, mapped across the country that have born the weight of chemical manufacturing. Brunswick, GA is an unfortunate extreme case study.