In Brunswick, Georgia, drought, industry and urbanization have drained coastal wetlands of precious fresh water, resulting in a huge decline in commercially harvested blue crabs.
To add insult to injury, LCP chemicals discharged nearly 150 tons of mercury into this already unstable watershed from the mid 1980’s until the plant’s closure in 1994, turning 800 square meters of prime blue crab habitat into a Superfund Site.
Though commercial fishing is allowed above and below the Site, the EPA maintains that contaminated groundwater migration is not under control. In a dying industry, crab fishermen do what they can just to survive.
This video is a working draft for my master’s thesis project, Backwater, a multimedia documentary about the impact of negligent industrial practices on the environmental, fiscal and social constructs of underserved communities in coastal Georgia.
Camera and Sound by Kathryn Rende
Edited by Kathryn Rende
Interview by Kathryn Rende