The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper warns that a massive fish kill stretching at least 20 miles has occurred on the Chattahoochee River near the city of Atlanta, likely connected to heavy rains that caused flooding this week.
Jason Ulseth, the Riverkeeper’s executive director, estimated there are thousands of dead fish in the river and called it the worst fish kill he’s seen in his 20 years with the organization.
“We have not seen anything like this before,” Ulseth said.
Credit: Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
Credit: Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
He said the fish kill begins just south of where Peachtree Creek runs into the Chattahoochee near Vinings. Ulseth stressed the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, a popular destination on holiday weekends like Memorial Day, is farther upstream and unaffected.
Georgia Environmental Protection Division spokeswoman Katie Bloomfield confirmed the agency was alerted to a fish kill Friday morning and was working with state and local partners to access the area.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” Bloomfield said.
Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It is not yet clear what killed the fish, but Ulseth said he suspects it’s connected to the heavy rains that drenched Atlanta on Wednesday, causing severe flooding in pockets of the city.
According to the National Weather Service’s Peachtree City office, parts of Atlanta received 2-3½ inches of rain Wednesday, with some areas receiving 1½ inches in just 30 minutes.
Atlanta’s largest wastewater treatment plant, the R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Plant, is also in the area near where the fish kill starts. The facility is permitted to discharge as much as 100 million gallons of treated wastewater every day into the river.
In the past the facility has struggled to deal with heavy influxes of stormwater, leading to releases of sewage and other pollutants into the Chattahoochee.
The city has also been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by state environmental regulators for the incidents in recent years. In February, Atlanta settled a federal lawsuit filed by the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in which the group claimed the city had repeatedly released poorly treated sewage into the waterway.
Also Friday, the city of Atlanta issued a boil water advisory for downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. It was not immediately clear if the fish kill and the drinking water warning are connected.
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