By DENNIS CHASE

Enviromental Columnist

We have been receiving more than our usual share of nonsense from some of the local government officials.

What we have been hearing out of the Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority representatives as well as some staff working for Peachtree City clearly falls into the super-nonsense category. I'm talking here about the line of trash they keep handing out about all of the sewage spills we have had in the last year or so.

Since we are not dealing with the politicians this time, we don't have the option available to us to make a change during the next election. Even with that handicap, let me offer my view what has been going on.

Just a few short weeks ago, the Line Creek Association, a group I represent, convinced the Georgia Environmental Protection Department (EPD) to hold a public hearing on the 1.5 million gallon spill as well as the 96,000 gallon sludge spill from last year. The hearing was held March 16, where several speakers expressed outrage at the continuing lack of an acceptable method of controlling the number of spills and especially the lack of anything being done to clean up the messes after they occurred.

One point that several of us made was that we didn't believe there were adequate procedures in place to handle future spills in a timely manner. We didn't realize just how right we were as just two weeks ago, during the afternoon of June 3, there was another significant spill.

This one went into Lake Peachtree from manholes on both sides of Ga. Highway 54 near City Hall. And what do they say to all of us?

“. . . a discharge of partially diluted wastewater was released into the upper reaches of Lake Peachtree near Hwy. 54 when a wastewater pump station failed.” That statement is a bunch of “sewage,” as it sounds like some innocent little release of wastewater. That nasty stuff spurting up out of those manholes was raw sewage, folks, nothing diluted about it.

And as usual, there is more to the story. This time they are blaming a subcontractor for leaving the lift station pumps in the off position. It seems that every spill over the last year or so has been the fault of someone or something else.

However, in this case, not a word was mentioned about the fact that there were alarms going off and Peachtree City firemen were trying desperately to find someone to end the mess.

It seems there was the case of a lost telephone down a manhole a week or so earlier which meant the man receiving the signal on his beeper from the alarm didn't have any way to call as he was on his way home. The next man to hear about it didn't have transportation so between the two of them, they just left the problem and went on about their business.

Still the calls for help continued to be sent by the firemen, and finally the city manager got a call to do something. Yet it took another two and a half hours to get the pumps back on. The whole thing sounds like the Keystone Cops at their worst.

But, folks, this was far from being funny. There were citizens fishing and swimming in Lake Peachtree and the few signs and other notices that went out did not mention why the city believed fishing and swimming should be stopped, so citizens using the area continued to swim and fish.

Now there is a report out that all is safe in Lake Peachtree, because the Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority says so. Now doesn't that make you feel warm and secure? They are basing that conclusion on a reduction of the fecal coliform count and nothing more.

Maybe it's time they understood that how many of this common bacteria in the water is not what is important. Fecal coliform is virtually harmless; as a matter of fact, we all have them in our systems and they are quite safe. It is those other microbes and protozoa that come with sewage that we should be worried about.

What sampling did they do to ensure that everything was clear of the other dangerous organisms? I can assure you they don't have the foggiest idea if they exist or not.

Is it safe for you and your children to swim or fish in Lake Peachtree? I don't know, but you can bet that I won't be in that lake. While I'm betting, I'll bet you won't find any of those city officials or their families in Lake Peachtree any time soon.

At the March public hearing, some of the Authority members became quite angry at us, me in particular. But in light of the continuing contamination of our water systems, I believe that we as citizens should be the angry party, not them. But what do we do?

Well, folks, some of us have tried very hard and have made some progress. Obviously, it has not been enough. Your chance will come when EPD lodges the next Proposed Consent Order against the Authority for this spill.

Or you can address this serious issue to your mayor and city council - they were the ones who said all the problems would be handled when they bought the system.

Basically, you have a choice: Continue to be dumped on, or take some strong action through your state EPD office and city council.

A word here about your drinking water. I believe it is probably safe. Fayette County has the equipment and knowledge to treat water with most types of contamination. There are some forms of protozoa such as cryptosporidium which are nearly immune to the water treatment processes, even chlorine.

Are these in Lake Peachtree? Again, I don't know, and the city doesn't know either. How much more you pay for your water because of increased levels of treatment necessary is hard to tell, but it stands to reason that clean lake water is easier and therefore cheaper to treat.

County-wide, there has been a growing awareness that we are not immune to significant negative impacts we are capable of inflicting on those resources we treasure in Fayette County. Our county government, and to a degree, Tyrone and Fayetteville, are doing a much better job of caring for the environment. While not all is perfect, there has been significant progress.

One more thought for you. The Authority will probably tell you that there are other sewage treatment systems around that are much worse. My response, in advance, is that there are many others around that are doing much better! Let's compare ourselves to the best, not the worst.

I would really like to believe that this 20,000 gallon spill of raw sewage will be the last. Unfortunately, these have been coming much too fast, and the odds are it will happen again.

I don't believe I can say that the city and Authority are not spreading lies through their press releases and comments to newspaper reporters' questions. The city staff is trying to keep the city from looking bad while the Authority staff is trying to keep their fine from being too high. The result is they end up telling us only a part of the truth about what is happening.

My opinion is that there isn't very much difference between a lie and part of the truth when citizens arrive at the erroneous conclusion that the problems have been fixed and, in this case, Lake Peachtree is safe.

In total, I think this shows that they have a low opinion of citizens and especially how much information we can handle. The bureaucrats appear to be in control, folks. Is that what we want from our government?

[Dennis Chase, now retired, was a fish and wildlife biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 26 years. Since retiring, he has worked as a consultant for Fayette County on environmental concerns, has been a volunteer with the Southern Conservation Trust Inc., and has published numerous newspaper columns.

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