Fifteen miles of Chattahoochee River closed due to high levels of E. coli

By Hannah E. Jones

The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA) covers a 48-mile stretch of the river, but today 15 of those miles are off-limits to the public. After a June 28 water quality test showed E. coli levels at almost 300 times the recommended limits for recreation, a stretch of the CRNRA was closed to on-water activities.

Every week, the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper tests the water quality at over 200 locations along the river. After discovering high levels of E. coli in the lower portion of the CRNRA, the team began to track the source — ultimately pinpointing the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility in North Fulton County.

According to Riverkeeper Jason Ulseth, the high E. coli reading isn’t “necessarily uncommon” after a heavy rainstorm, but he said this incident wasn’t weather-related.

“When we have a heavy thunderstorm, it pours all the muddy water into the river and carries other contaminants like dog poop and overwhelmed sewer lines,” Ulseth said. “However, with this occurrence, this was not a weather-related event. The river is low and inviting, and thousands of people were on the river at this time when E. coli was in the river and that’s what [led to] the closure.”

Typically, the Big Creek facility treats over 20 million gallons of sewage and puts the clean water back into the river. Instead, last week, the plant was dumping untreated sewage into the Chattahoochee. The exact cause, according to Fulton County Director of Public Works David Clark, is still unknown.

“This is what we believe: Something came into the wastewater that upset the biological process that happens,” Clark said. “That could be some type of chemical — for instance, a large volume of pool water — that basically attacked the good biology that we have in the plants. This was not an operational failure, but there was something that upset the biological process.”

Clark added that this is the first time this has happened at Big Creek in over 30 years. Fulton County officials are describing the incident as a chemical leak, calling the waste “partially treated effluent,” which is sewage or stormwater that does not meet treatment standards. However, the Riverkeepers describe this as a sewage spill.

“It’s a matter of splitting words,” Ulseth explained. “In reality, this is just sewage.”

The plant still isn’t fully up to par, meaning the sewage will continue to flow until it is repaired. The Big Creek team is working to course-correct, and are regrowing microbes that help with the treatment process. According to an update provided by the county, 40 tanker loads of healthy microorganisms were transferred to the facility in an effort to facilitate their growth. It’s predicted to take a few more days to clean up the waterway.

Exposure to E. coli can lead to vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms, but most recover without medical intervention. However, the ecosystem is facing potentially long-lasting impacts from the spill, primarily due to dissolved oxygen in the river.

“When you have sewage introduced to any body of water, the bacteria that’s naturally present in the river starts to break down the organic material that’s within the sewage,” Ulseth said. “In that process, it eats up all the oxygen and replaces it with carbon dioxide. In a sewer spill, the major impact is not the sewage itself but it’s the depletion of oxygen that’s the concern.” 

He continued: “We’re closely monitoring oxygen levels downstream from the spill, and we did see levels reaching very dangerous [amounts] for fish and aquatic organisms, but we have not seen any dead wildlife.”

To help mitigate the impacts, the Army Corps of Engineers has also agreed to release additional water through the Buford Dam to help dilute the contaminated water.

“If this was a river without a dam and didn’t have the ability to purge this water, I think we would be in a much, much more dangerous scenario,” Ulseth said.

For continued updates on the status of the river and its E. coli levels, click here.