An estimated 33,000 gallons of sanitary sewage discharged from a lift station near the west end of Runway 10-28 at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, spilling into a wooded area next to Sullivan Creek. Airport officials say normal lift station operations resumed about 90 minutes after the spill began, and flight operations and passenger services experienced no disruptions.
The spill, which occurred on September 16, was announced by Hartsfield-Jackson officials, who said the sewage came from an on-site facility and reached the wooded area adjacent to the creek, according to WABE. Sullivan Creek is a tributary of the Flint River, and downstream communities sit in Clayton, Coweta, Fayette, Pike and Spalding counties. More than 1 million Georgians rely on the Flint River for drinking water, swimming, fishing, and commercial, agricultural and industrial uses, per the same report.
Workers applied a neutralizing agent to the affected ground, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. The airport is working with local and state partners to mitigate the spill's impact, and is required by law to notify the public when a sewage spill exceeds 10,000 gallons, per a Yahoo News report citing that same requirement.
Cause Still Under Investigation
Investigators have not yet determined what caused the sewage lift station to fail, Fox 5 Atlanta reports. Official updates on downstream water quality monitoring required by Georgia officials have not yet been released, according to the station's reporting. Hartsfield-Jackson has said it monitors downstream water quality per Georgia Environmental Protection Division requirements, per WABE.
Workers are checking water quality downstream as required by that state agency, the Yahoo News report notes, though results specific to this spill have not been made public. The cause of the spill remains under investigation, WABE reports.
Part of a Pattern of Pollution Incidents
This is not the airport's first pollution scare this year. A jet fuel spill went undetected for several days in January, with the City of Atlanta saying at the time that the fuel came from a fuel pit hydrant valve attached to an airport fuel system pipeline, according to WABE. That spill triggered a do-not-consume water advisory for Griffin.
In April, Hartsfield-Jackson announced a smaller, unidentified petroleum contamination, though the airport and regulators did not specify what the material was, per WABE's reporting. Then, over Memorial Day weekend in May, a broken bolt on an underground fuel line caused a third petroleum spill into the Flint River, prompting the airport and state to remediate tens of thousands of gallons of contaminated water at the river's headwaters.
Environmental Groups Threaten Legal Action
In July, Flint Riverkeeper and the Southern Environmental Law Center sent a 60-day letter of intent to sue the City of Atlanta and the airport over what they described as consistent river pollution, saying the ongoing contamination violated federal Clean Water Act and solid-waste laws, according to WABE. Under the Clean Water Act, that 60-day notice period is meant to give alleged violators time to come into compliance and potentially avoid lengthy, costly litigation.
Gordon Rogers, of Flint Riverkeeper, said the organization and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division had tried to work with the airport for more than a decade, and that the situation requires federal Clean Water Act scrutiny, per WABE's reporting. Discharges of wastewater or stormwater from a facility into surface waters — which include rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands — are typically regulated through a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that such permits are limited to five-year terms, though they can be renewed or reissued.
