Liberty Commission meeting
Congressman to meet with
Liberty Commissioners to
go over Estiffanulga Bank
Stabilization Project Thurs.
by Teresa Eubanks, CLJNews.com
U.S. Congressman Neal Dunn will meet with the Liberty County Commission and interested citizens at the Estiffanulga Boat Ramp at 9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 24 to discuss the Estiffanulga Bank Stabilization Project. Senator Corey Simon and Rep. Jason Shoaf are also expected to attend.
Local resident Fran Davis, who heads up the organization Estiffanulga Matters, said five of the group’s volunteers have logged over 4,000 hours to create awareness of the serious erosion issues that plague the riverside community.
“The river banks are falling in,” said Davis, who bought property to retire in Liberty County. She was stunned when she realized the Apalachicola River was pealing away most of her back yard, eventually taking 100 feet of her land while exposing plumbing and sewer pipes along the bank. She said that two homes are in eminent danger of falling into the river while several others are threatened.
According to the 2020 Census, the community has over 300 households. Some of those properties serve as camps and part-time residences. Many homeowners have property with river frontage.
She’s also concerned about the diminished beauty along the water, noting, “The unusual and rare red clay bluff is washing away.”
Dredging that began in the late 1800s by the U.S. Corps of Engineers “created a disaster” she said. After realizing the error and expense of the project, she said they stopped. “The Corps abandoned their dredging spoils, causing the river current and the channel to shift and erode almost one mile of the easterly banks of the river at Estiffanulga’s legendary bend….Many artifacts and historical relics are lost to the river forever, washed away by erosion,” she explained in her organization’s mission statement.
Much more stands to be lost, she said. “In the path of this erosion lies the settlement’s water storage tanks and three-well collection equipment, the Volunteer Fire Department and the Orange Voting Place. Raw residential sewage is spilling into river from unearthed septic systems and then travels 70 miles south to the Gulf of Mexico.”
The landing is located off CR 333 at 7031 Joe Red Shuler Road, Bristol.
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