Some local residents' reluctance

to drink Fayette County water due to a sweet smell may actually be contributing

to continuation of the smell.

That's the word from Tony Parrott,

director of the Water System.

"We're flushing hydrants

to clear up the system," Parrott said, "but as many miles of

pipe as we have and with people using less water ..."

Recent rains have added to

the problem by lowering demand as well, he said.

Some residents have questioned

the validity of tests run recently by the state Environmental Protection

Division, because all but one of nine tests showed no contamination of

the water, and yet their water still smells.

Rob Jones of Peachtree City

said reading that testing showed no contamination while his nose told

him otherwise causes him to doubt the tests.

"The truth is it smells

like antifreeze," he said. And he is worried about how long the testing

process takes, he added. "It'd be two weeks before we could officially

know there was a problem" if the water were truly contaminated with

something, he said.

Parrott said the water receiving

a clean bill of health doesn't mean there won't be a smell.

"It doesn't mean there

isn't any [contaminant] there at all," said Parrott. "[The water]

can actually have a smell without it being anywhere near a problem"

as far as safety of the water is concerned, he said.

But he stressed, "The

state EPD ran their own tests and said our water is safe to drink."

Parrott said he sent some samples to a private lab as well with the same

results.

Crews are flushing fire hydrants

each time a neighborhood complains of the odor, Parrott said, and in some

cases the residents report that the odor went away. In areas where the

flushing doesn't work the first time, it's being repeated, he said.

The system has about 460 miles

of pipe, he said, adding that it may take some time to completely clear

up the problem.

The problem cropped up earlier

this month with about 50 residents of south Peachtree City phoning the

Water System to complain. When some residents put forth the theory that

glycol used in deicing planes at Hartsfield Airport may have spilled into

the Flint River and contaminated the water, the system shut down its South

Fayette Treatment Plant, which draws water from the Flint, called in the

EPD and asked that the water be tested for that and other contaminants.

The system also added activated carbon to remove chemicals from the water.

Last week, when the latest

round of tests showed no problems, the plant was reopened, after its equipment

and holding ponds were flushed.

"The water continues to

be safe," Parrott said last week. "Even though we had some problems,

at no time did the water exceed the health advisories or the Department

of Natural Resources' rules and regulations."

In one of three samples originally

sent for testing, a "trace" of ethylene glycol was found, said

Bert Langley, director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division's

emergency response program. Since then, five more samples from Fayette

came back with no detectable levels of any contaminants.

State environmental officials

are investigating a reported spill of a deicing chemical at the airport.

"We want to know how it happened and why it happened so it won't

happen again," Langley said.

The chemical is also found

in antifreeze, which means it can also enter streams whenever rainwater

drains off the roadway, Langley said.

Hartsfield officials reported

that 250 gallons of the deicing chemical spilled into the Flint River

from its storm water drainage system Jan. 3, Langley said. That's not

enough to have caused the widespread odor in the water, Parrot said.

Parrott said officials closed

the plant although they were not required to by state regulations. Clayton

County, which also pumps water out of the Flint River, continued to do

so, but Fayette officials decided to draw more water out of the Crosstown

Road water treatment plant.

In a news release this week,

officials at the Clayton County Water Authority said that system simply

added activated carbon to the water when they learned of the deicing spill

at Hartsfield. "Our analyses continually confirmed that our water

being produced for our customers met all health standards during this

time in question," said Guy Pihera, water production manager.

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