Atlanta Faces Lawsuit Over Sewage Dumping into Chattahoochee River
A lawsuit against the city of Atlanta concerning the discharge of sewage into the Chattahoochee River is advancing. On Friday, the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, an environmental nonprofit dedicated to preserving the river’s health, filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the city of violating the Clean Water Act.
The group has been alerting the city officials since July about their intention to sue if issues at the R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center, Atlanta’s largest treatment facility, were not resolved. This facility is permitted to release up to 100 million gallons of treated wastewater per day into the Chattahoochee River. However, the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper claims that the facility has been “illegally discharging pollutants” for several months.
“We’re talking 80,000,000 gallons per day going into the Chattahoochee River that is only partially treated,”
stated Jason Ulseth, the executive director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, in an interview in July. The group asserts that since March, they have found elevated levels of E. coli and other harmful bacteria in the river.
“We discovered that all of the E. coli and pollutants were coming directly out of their treatment plant,”
Ulseth said earlier this week. He pointed to significant issues at each treatment stage at the R.M. Clayton plant. Despite becoming aware of the problem in March, Ulseth claimed that the plant has continued dumping unsafe water into the river.
In July, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper issued a notice of intent to file a lawsuit against the city if the plant wasn’t repaired within 60 days. However, that deadline has come and gone without sufficient action, according to the organization.
“Over the past five months, I’ve actually been surprised by the lack of communication that we’ve had from the city,”
Ulseth stated.
“I was hoping it would be more open and more transparent.”
In response, the mayor’s office indicated that it had offered the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper tours of the plant and samples of the water, adding that improvements to the facility are ongoing. They also noted that recent state and federal reports have shown an improvement in the quality of the plant’s treated water since March.
“We’ve certainly seen improved water coming out of the treatment plant,” Ulseth acknowledged, “but it’s still not where the treatment plant needs to be.”
The lawsuit aims to obtain a court mandate requiring the city to maintain safe bacteria levels in the river.
“The crux of this issue right now is to get it fixed, stop polluting the Chattahoochee River, and lay out the guidelines that are going to be used in the future to make sure this never happens again,”
said Ulseth.
While city attorneys have agreed to meet with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper representatives, the two parties have yet to schedule a time for that meeting. Daily testing conducted by the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper at the outfall found E. coli levels were on average 340 times higher than the amount recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for safe water recreation.
The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper asserts that they had to sue because the issue affects nearly 60 miles downstream. After the group threatened the lawsuit, the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management responded:
“Both the City of Atlanta and CRK are aligned and share the same goal of protecting the water quality of the Chattahoochee River. Thus, we believe our collective time and efforts are best spent working towards that goal, not pursuing expensive and protracted litigation.”
However, the nonprofit contends that the facility remains in disrepair, with problems throughout all stages of wastewater treatment and several safety hazards. Ulseth emphasized,
“The City of Atlanta knows that the R.M. Clayton facility is failing and poses a serious threat to the health of the Chattahoochee River and all the people and wildlife who depend on it,”
addressing the ongoing issues.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent any more violations and impose civil penalties on the city.
By addressing these substantial concerns, the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper aims to ensure a healthier future for the Chattahoochee River and the communities dependent on its waters.
