Research leaders from Georgia Southern University and the Phinizy Center for Water Sciences revealed the outlines this week for two and a half years of basic research to support an environmental early warning system for the Ogeechee River.A little more than $1 million for the research comes from King America Finishing, now owned by Milliken & Co., under King America’s 2013 consent decree with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, or EPD.Georgia Southern’s Biology Department, its Geology and Geography Department and the Phinizy Center, based at Phinizy Swamp Park near Augusta, are working together in the research. They will study climate along the river, the health of organisms that live in it, and its water chemistry.“We’re trying to build up a baseline of data, to have a good understanding of how the river functions over this three-year period so that we can be able to react to different challenges that the river might face,” said GSU Biology Department Chairman Dr. Steve Vives.The three calendar years are 2014, 2015 and 2016, as set in motion by the November consent decree. As part of the agreement, King America funded a $1.3 million Supplemental Environmental Project, or SEP, upgraded from a previous $1 million, which also includes $75,000 for 18 months of third-party monitoring of its fabric finishing plant’s discharge into the river and $158,609 for upgrades to the city of Millen’s wastewater treatment plant.King America also settled a federal lawsuit brought by the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, agreeing to pay $2.5 million to that nonprofit group, and reportedly spent another $2.5 million on changes at the plant, including a new discharge filtration system.Although the EPD had found King America in violation of its previous permit for chemicals in its discharge, the agency never said that King America’s discharge caused the massive May 2011 fish kill that prompted its investigation.