AH-Spill-underlines-sewer-plant-s-problems-0305

Spill underlines sewer plant's problems

Adam Thompson Athens Banner-Herald, Ga.

Mar. 5--A blocked sewer line sent 8,000 gallons of sewage spilling into Watkinsville's Calls Creek last week, just as local officials planned to talk about how to clean up the impaired stream.

Oconee County public utility crews quickly diverted the sewage flow and cleaned the spill Feb. 25, the day before a meeting on a cleanup plan the state Environmental Protection Division is sponsoring for the stream.

The line probably overflowed because a truck hauling sewage from private and commercial septic tanks unloaded grease, grit and even rags into the county's Calls Creek sewer treatment plant, according to the utility department.

Companies that haul septic tank sewage are allowed to unload at the sewer plant, but the plant really wasn't made to handle large loads of commercial sewage, said utility department Director Chris Thomas.

The EPD considers the 8,000-gallon spill a "minor" one, but the county government was required to notify the public this week.

The utility department has taken extra samples from the creek, and, because of the good results, officials think they originally may have overestimated the amount of sewage that spilled, Thomas said.

Though spills such as last week's are rare at the Calls Creek plant, the stream already is on a list of waters that have too-high levels of fecal coliform bacteria, a disease vector that could indicate contamination by fecal matter from humans and animals.

Armed with an EPD grant and led by the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center, an advisory group of city, county and other officials met last Thursday in Watkinsville to plan ways to clean up the creek.

They'll meet and confer a couple more times during the summer and should complete the plan by September, said Lee Carmon, the RDC planner heading up the effort.

As part of the process, they'll try to find where the pollution is coming from, Carmon said.

EPD says the contamination comes from "urban runoff," a problem that could include improperly maintained residential septic systems and cattle at the U.S. Department of Agriculture research station near Watkinsville, Carmon said.

There is no indication of problems at the Calls Creek sewer plant, but the group may never determine the exact cause of the pollution, she said.

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