Wednesday, October 10, 2001
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Wednesday, October 10, 2001 |
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Health board seeks state help for lake By JOHN MUNFORD
With confirmed reports of contaminated water leading into Lake Edith, the Fayette County Board of Health is seeking assistance from state environmental officials. The elevated counts of bacteria recently discovered in a stream leading to Lake Edith have led the board to desire action from the state. A likely source of the contamination is sewage discharge from the Marnelle Mobile Home Park. Lake Edith is next to the Fayette Family YMCA camp, but YMCA officials have not allowed swimming or canoeing there because of the contamination reports. At a meeting Tuesday morning, several Board of Health members said the stream at times has had a "sewage" smell and foam has collected on the water. Jim Summerville of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division told the board that concerns him and any such reports should be forwarded to the EPD. But Summerville said Marnelle officials have not violated the law, because they have remained within the parameters of their sewage discharge permit. Several unannounced inspections at the mobile home park have netted no violations, Summerville said. The board wants the state to monitor chlorine output from Marnelle to make sure the park is using enough chlorine to kill contaminants such as fecal coliform. A computer monitoring device could be placed on the stream to do just that, eliminating the need for field testing, but Summerville balked at using such a system, saying such devices are typically reserved for large sewer treatment plants. He said he will look into the matter, though. The EPD could attempt to change the permit to require a more stringent bacterial count limit on the operation, Summerville said. "Based on the YMCA using the lake, we could consider that," he said, adding that if the EPD does that, it wants to be on firm legal ground. The contamination has been substantiated by tests conducted at the board's request and tests from a Tyrone company that is investigating whether it can help improve the water quality discharged from the mobile home park. But the EPD requires more tests that the board ordered to create a geometric mean, a method of averaging test results. Sampling done by Archaea Solutions Inc. from Tyrone tested for different coliforms than the state tests for. Dennis Chase, a local environmental activist, chastised the state for not taking stronger action, particularly since the federal Environmental Protection Agency has said geometric means aren't needed for these tests to confirm contamination. Archaea Solutions offers a treatment process that could likely keep Lake Edith free of bacteria for "a very small cost," according to Dr. Ernest Childs, president of the company. Childs said the Marnelle treatment facility also could be helped with better use of the chlorination process. Summerville said the waste treatment facility at Marnelle was built prior to 1974. He suggested several changes that would improve the chlorination process at the facility. No representatives from Marnelle attended the meeting. State Rep. Kathy Cox said there have been several complaints from Marnelle residents that officials have dumped raw sewage on the ground on several occasions. If the state law isn't strong enough to force the problem to be fixed, she said she would work to strengthen the laws. "They are not properly operating their system," Cox said. Board member (and county commissioner) A.G. VanLandingham said he felt it was unfair that the contamination from Marnelle was preventing others from enjoying Lake Edith.
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