do you belive the govenment or will we see people get sick

ATLANTA — The E. coli bacteria level in the Chattahoochee River, which is the drinking water source for more than 3.5 million people, including 70 percent of the people in metro Atlanta, recently tested 42 times greater than the highest safe level, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said in a September 27 article.

Federal officials have been routinely sampling the river following record flooding in the region.

Sally Bethea of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper organization reported the extremely high level of E. coli bacteria in the water detected during the sampling. She said, “There is no way you want to get in or even touch water [this dirty]. I’ve never seen the water so filthy. It was just filthy, and it didn’t smell very good in some places.”

Sampling of source water and drinking water continues. In a September 28 report on 11Alive.com, reporters said, “We have now received the results from the state’s early samples that show the fecal count at the Atlanta drinking water intake [on the Chattahoochee River] was 25 percent above acceptable limits. … However, officials tell us the drinking water is still safe except in areas that have a boil advisory in effect.”

The city’s R.M. Clayton sewage treatment plant, which was swamped by the flood, is partially able to treat waste entering the facility. However, the plant has been inundated with trash brought in by the high water. City officials have not yet announced when the plant will resume full operation, the Journal-Constitution reported.

Janet Ward, with the city’s Watershed Management Department, called on the public to “stop dumping trash in the streets” that would enter the plant from storm drains.

Tim Cash with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division said in the Journal-Constitution article that samples of the river’s water following the flooding “showed the water remains capable of supporting life despite the flood of sewage” because so much water was flushing through the system. He said the main risk to the public from the river is the potential for pathogens, a risk that becomes more pronounced as the floodwaters recede and flows return to normal.

To read the Journal-Constitution article, click here.

To read the 11Alive report, click here.

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