For years, Proctor Creek, which flows from downtown Atlanta to the Chattahoochee River, has functioned as a de facto dumping ground. The fact that it's illegal has not stopped people from using it to dispose of tires, old appliances and other household waste. On top of that, it's significantly contaminated by runoff, bacteria and other pollutants.
Now, that might all change.
An environmental group is alleging that the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management is violating a state permit by discharging too many pollutants into the South River.
The South River Watershed Alliance believes that Atlanta officials are discharging too much "combined sewer overflow" into the river. "Combined sewer overflow" is a term for what is emitted from drainpipes that collected both sewage and rainwater. It can amount to water contamination because it can contains runoff and other chemicals and substances that would not otherwise be in our rivers and lakes.
On Tuesday, authorities disclosed that a small water treatment plant in northern Georgia had been broken into recently and the settings for water-treatment chemicals had been changed, effectively making the water poisonous.
To date, no one has been apprehended in connection with the incident.
We wanted to write a post about this frightening water contamination incident because the security and integrity of our water facilities is absolutely vital. They are not something that comes to mind often, but events like this illustrate why security experts often say our water supply need additional security measures.
New Environmental Protection Agency rules could affect how one of Georgia's most controversial power plants handles its dangerous waste.
The EPA is mulling new regulations for coal ash, a toxic byproduct of burning coal. Presently, it is common practice for power companies, which burn coal to generate electricity, to dump coal ash into large holding ponds. This is what Georgia Power's Plant Scherer just north of Macon does.
In the event that Atlanta residents are not closely following the confirmation hearings for U.S. Energy Department secretary candidate Ernest Moniz, we thought we would write a post on the topic.
This is actually a very serious course of events to follow. The U.S. Energy Department dictates our national energy policy, and of course our energy choices have a great impact on the environment, so whomever leads the Energy Department will have the power to make decisions with a real environmental impact.
In an earlier post on the blog, we wrote about how some Georgia officials were contemplating making a legal bid for a source of drinking water that is just a hair out of reach across Georgia's northern border with Tennessee.
At the time, most people thought this was just a creative idea that was not really workable, but now it seems that calls to at least explore this option are growing louder.
Georgia-based Home Depot has agreed to pay $8 million to settle claims that it sold thousands of gallons of paint and other materials in California that did not comply with state air quality standards.
News of the settlement broke on Friday. It is not immediately clear if the Atlanta home-improvement giant sold the allegedly infringing products in other states, too. If it did, it may face legal action in states besides California, although California is widely known as having the toughest environmental standards in the U.S.
In our last post, we wrote about the Ogeechee River, which is in Georgia newspapers a lot these days due to the environmental concerns around the King America Finishing plant and how it has dumped pollution into the river for at least five years without a proper permit.
However, the Ogeechee is not the only Georgia river in the news these days.
An Atlanta-area judge has approved a fine and new monitoring requirements for King America Finishing, the textile maker that environmental authorities believe has been polluting the Ogeechee River illegally for at least five years.
Not everyone is happy with the penalty, however.
An environmental group is pressuring Georgia lawmakers to provide funding for new water meters that it says could help stabilize the state's water supply.
Members of Georgia Water Coalition are trying to drum up support for House Bill 199. That bill would provide money for enhanced water-meter technology.
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