BRUNSWICK, Ga.— On July 23, 2022, community members concerned about local environmental issues gathered for the Brunswick Healthy Neighborhoods Community Fair. The event was organized by researchers from the University of Georgia, environmental health scientists from Emory University, Brunswick’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board and the Coastal Georgia Area Community Action Authority.
The community was already deeply aware of the compound risks it faces. Located on the southern end of Georgia’s coast, Glynn County has worked for years to highlight and address flood risk adequately, but floods and their cascading impacts often have disproportionate effects on underserved communities. Professors of engineering and environmental economics from the University of Georgia are working with Georgia Sea Grant and the City of Brunswick to address this uneven risk.
The new project aims to identify and characterize coastal inundation risk, which is compounded with contamination risk from point and non-point sources of pollution. Point sources produce pollution from a single place, such as a drainage pipe or wastewater treatment plant. Non-point sources, which are more difficult to define, produce pollution across a wide area, such as runoff from a city street or from septic tanks during a storm. With every flood, Brunswick faces increased pollution risk from both types of sources.
Glynn County houses 15 active Superfund sites, four of which are on the National Priorities List (NPL), and 8 archived sites. The EPA designates Superfund sites for containing hazardous substances– areas you don’t particularly want to see hit with major storm surges. Additionally, over 12,000 houses in Glynn County are not connected to sewers but rely on aging septic systems.
The team, which includes UGA professors Félix Santiago-Collazo and Susana Ferreira, will look at current and future inundation risks using simulated storms, map contamination risks from point (Superfund sites) and non-point (septic tanks) sources and estimate the economic impact to the properties and structures at risk. Other team members include Georgia Sea Grant staff Jessica Brown, Kimberly Andrews and Eugene Frimpong.
The data collected will be used to collaboratively develop engineering recommendations for the City of Brunswick, Glynn County and Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission, as well as to help establish a systematic framework for the Sea Grant Network to replicate in other communities. Specific products will include new GIS resources and data, technical reports and engineering designs for hazard mitigation, which will be developed jointly with UGA’s College of Engineering senior design capstone course.
The researchers also aim to share data and results “in a way that is transparent, inclusive, and appropriate to the audiences involved.” The data collection, mapping, engineering recommendations and reporting are expected to take about two years in order to thoroughly address the community’s concerns.
“Sometimes, the most challenging part is not solving a complex problem, such as the one presented here. It is implementing a practical solution effectively for the benefit of society. By enhancing flood models and broadening their application, we can better assess hazards and risks using state-of-the-art technology to propose flood resiliency measures in a changing climate.” – Félix Santiago-Collazo
This project was recently awarded funding from the Georgia Sea Grant and will continue through February of 2026. Sea Grant is a collaboration between the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) and colleges across the U.S. to promote and support coastal science research. Learn more about the Sea Grant Network here.
Featured image: Tybee Island, Chatham County, GA, looking towards the west. Dr. Félix Santiago-Collazo took this image during a recent field visit. All photos provided by Dr. Félix Santiago-Collazo and Dr. Susana Ferreira.