Enviromental

Columnist

We have been receiving more

than our usual share of nonsense from some of the local

government officials.

What we have been hearing

out of the Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority

representatives as well as some staff working for

Peachtree City clearly falls into the super-nonsense

category. I'm talking here about the line of trash they

keep handing out about all of the sewage spills we have

had in the last year or so.

Since we are not dealing

with the politicians this time, we don't have the option

available to us to make a change during the next

election. Even with that handicap, let me offer my view

what has been going on.

Just a few short weeks ago,

the Line Creek Association, a group I represent,

convinced the Georgia Environmental Protection Department

(EPD) to hold a public hearing on the 1.5 million gallon

spill as well as the 96,000 gallon sludge spill from last

year. The hearing was held March 16, where several

speakers expressed outrage at the continuing lack of an

acceptable method of controlling the number of spills and

especially the lack of anything being done to clean up

the messes after they occurred.

One point that several of

us made was that we didn't believe there were adequate

procedures in place to handle future spills in a timely

manner. We didn't realize just how right we were as just

two weeks ago, during the afternoon of June 3, there was

another significant spill.

This one went into Lake

Peachtree from manholes on both sides of Ga. Highway 54

near City Hall. And what do they say to all of us?

". . . a discharge of

partially diluted wastewater was released into the upper

reaches of Lake Peachtree near Hwy. 54 when a wastewater

pump station failed." That statement is a bunch of

"sewage," as it sounds like some innocent

little release of wastewater. That nasty stuff spurting

up out of those manholes was raw sewage , folks,

nothing diluted about it.

And as usual, there is more

to the story. This time they are blaming a subcontractor

for leaving the lift station pumps in the off position.

It seems that every spill over the last year or so has

been the fault of someone or something else.

However, in this case, not

a word was mentioned about the fact that there were

alarms going off and Peachtree City firemen were trying

desperately to find someone to end the mess.

It seems there was the case

of a lost telephone down a manhole a week or so earlier

which meant the man receiving the signal on his beeper

from the alarm didn't have any way to call as he was on

his way home. The next man to hear about it didn't have

transportation so between the two of them, they just left

the problem and went on about their business.

Still the calls for help

continued to be sent by the firemen, and finally the city

manager got a call to do something. Yet it took another

two and a half hours to get the pumps back on. The whole

thing sounds like the Keystone Cops at their worst.

But, folks, this was far

from being funny. There were citizens fishing and

swimming in Lake Peachtree and the few signs and other

notices that went out did not mention why the city

believed fishing and swimming should be stopped, so

citizens using the area continued to swim and fish.

Now there is a report out

that all is safe in Lake Peachtree, because the Peachtree

City Water and Sewerage Authority says so. Now doesn't

that make you feel warm and secure? They are basing that

conclusion on a reduction of the fecal coliform count and

nothing more.

Maybe it's time they

understood that how many of this common bacteria in the

water is not what is important. Fecal coliform is

virtually harmless; as a matter of fact, we all have them

in our systems and they are quite safe. It is those other

microbes and protozoa that come with sewage that we

should be worried about.

What sampling did they do

to ensure that everything was clear of the other

dangerous organisms? I can assure you they don't have the

foggiest idea if they exist or not.

Is it safe for you and your

children to swim or fish in Lake Peachtree? I don't know,

but you can bet that I won't be in that lake. While I'm

betting, I'll bet you won't find any of those city

officials or their families in Lake Peachtree any time

soon.

At the March public

hearing, some of the Authority members became quite angry

at us, me in particular. But in light of the continuing

contamination of our water systems, I believe that we as

citizens should be the angry party, not them. But what do

we do?

Well, folks, some of us

have tried very hard and have made some progress.

Obviously, it has not been enough. Your chance will come

when EPD lodges the next Proposed Consent Order against

the Authority for this spill.

Or you can address this

serious issue to your mayor and city council - they were

the ones who said all the problems would be handled when

they bought the system.

Basically, you have a

choice: Continue to be dumped on, or take some strong

action through your state EPD office and city council.

A word here about your

drinking water. I believe it is probably safe. Fayette

County has the equipment and knowledge to treat water

with most types of contamination. There are some forms of

protozoa such as cryptosporidium which are nearly immune

to the water treatment processes, even chlorine.

Are these in Lake

Peachtree? Again, I don't know, and the city doesn't know

either. How much more you pay for your water because of

increased levels of treatment necessary is hard to tell,

but it stands to reason that clean lake water is easier

and therefore cheaper to treat.

County-wide, there has been

a growing awareness that we are not immune to significant

negative impacts we are capable of inflicting on those

resources we treasure in Fayette County. Our county

government, and to a degree, Tyrone and Fayetteville, are

doing a much better job of caring for the environment.

While not all is perfect, there has been significant

progress.

One more thought for you.

The Authority will probably tell you that there are other

sewage treatment systems around that are much worse. My

response, in advance, is that there are many others

around that are doing much better! Let's compare

ourselves to the best, not the worst.

I would really like to

believe that this 20,000 gallon spill of raw sewage will

be the last. Unfortunately, these have been coming much

too fast, and the odds are it will happen again.

I don't believe I can say

that the city and Authority are not spreading lies

through their press releases and comments to newspaper

reporters' questions. The city staff is trying to keep

the city from looking bad while the Authority staff is

trying to keep their fine from being too high. The result

is they end up telling us only a part of the truth about

what is happening.

My opinion is that there

isn't very much difference between a lie and part of the

truth when citizens arrive at the erroneous conclusion

that the problems have been fixed and, in this case, Lake

Peachtree is safe.

In total, I think this

shows that they have a low opinion of citizens and

especially how much information we can handle. The

bureaucrats appear to be in control, folks. Is that what

we want from our government?

[Dennis

Chase, now retired, was a fish and wildlife biologist

with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 26

years. Since retiring, he has worked as a consultant for

Fayette County on environmental concerns, has been a

volunteer with the Southern Conservation Trust Inc., and

has published numerous newspaper columns.

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