Water officials should find

out Tuesday why the water in south Peachtree City has recently had a sweet

smell that some users have likened to maple syrup, others to antifreeze.

One resident, Patty Culjak,

complained that officials at the Fayette County Water System and in the

county government have showed a lack of concern about what she considers

a potentially serious problem, but Water System Director Tony Parrott

said the system is doing all it can to find out the source of the odor

and correct it.

"I have no idea at this

point how my baby's been affected by it," Culjak said Thursday.

Culjak, who is expecting, said

she first noticed the odor about ten days ago but "didn't pay too

much mind at first. I thought it was me."

But as time went on and the

smell persisted, she decided to phone the water system.

Apparently others went through

the same thought process, because the system was deluged with about 50

phone calls this past Monday, all from the south Fayette area, mostly

Peachtree City, said Parrott.

Culjak said when she described

the odor to her husband, who is in Seattle on homeland defense business,

"his immediate thought was glycol."

The chemical is used in deicing

airplanes, and the Culjaks developed the theory that runoff from deicing

operations at Hartsfield Airport during the recent snowstorm found its

way into the Flint River, which supplies much of Fayette's drinking water.

Culjak said water system officials

rebuffed her efforts to get them to test the water to find out what the

problem was, prompting her husband to file a complaint Tuesday with the

federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Parrott admitted he doesn't

agree with the glycol theory, but said the system responded quickly to

get the water tested after receiving the complaints.

Since Clayton County gets a

larger proportion of its drinking water from the Flint than Fayette does,

and its intake is closer to the airport than Fayette's, Parrott said he

would have thought if the problem were glycol from the airport, Clayton

would have more complaints. But that system has had only one complaint,

he said.

Also, he said, a chemical like

glycol would float on top of the water and be visibly apparent in the

system's raw-water holding pond, but that's not the case.

The problem could well be caused

adding that the best way to deal with those problems is to flush fire

hydrants, something the system has done in this case. There are numerous

possible reasons for the odor, he added. "I wish I knew the answer,"

he said.

But he phoned the state Environmental

Protection Division, he said, and asked the agency to test Fayette's water

for bacterial contamination as well as chemical, specifically glycol.

The water system is not equipped to run such tests locally, he added.

A state EPD official contacted

system's request, not as a result of the complaint filed with the federal

EPA.

Results of the state tests

won't be available until Tuesday. Meanwhile, at EPD's suggestion, Fayette

has been feeding carbon into the system to remove any chemical contaminants

that may be in the water, and the South Fayette Treatment Plant, which

takes water from the Flint River, has been shut down.

Culjak said she is frustrated

that EPD and the water system aren't issuing a county-wide warning not

to drink the water.

She said her children's excrement

has started to exhibit strange colors, and Rick Fehr, county environmental

health director, warned her not to use the water until the problem has

been resolved.

But Jim Banks of EPD's Drinking

Water Program said, "The water, I think, is safe." But he said

anyone who is concerned has to make a personal decision about whether

to drink it.

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