The spill last week at the South Cobb Water Reclamation Facility will have continuing effects on both Nickajack Creek and the Chattahoochee River.
The Chattahoochee River Keeper monitors the water way and pollution that goes into the river. River Keeper Jason Ulseth tells WSB Radio the spill into the the creek was just about 50 yards from where the creek flows into the river.
High levels of E.Coli were detected in both the Hooch and Nickajack creek. "In Nickajack, we took an E.Coli reading which was off the charts. It was higher than we were able to actually detect with our technology here in our laboratory,” Ulseth says.
As for what was found in the Chattachoochee, Ulseth explains, "The spill definitely had an impact and did raise the e.coli levels significantly in the Chattahoochee River."
Those levels were up to five times what was found upstream of the spill in the Chattachoochee. That means there is an greater chance folks who come in contact with the river water can get sick.
"It does increase the risk of anybody coming in contact with that water, contracting an illness, ear infection, rash, that sort of thing,” Ulseth says. So, he is advising that people “refrain from going on the river down stream of the spill site until it's resolved.”
There is an upside though: oxygen levels remain high.
"We actually found really good oxygen levels in the main stem of the river, which is really good news for the fish and wild life that are in the river system," Ulseth says. That is because low oxygen levels lead to the death of living creatures in the water.
It would be a different story if this happened in the summer. "We didn't see any severe impacts as far as oxygen levels in the river,” Ulseth explains, adding, “which could have been a completely different story if this major spill happened during a different time of the year, like in the heat of the summer.
“I think we would've seen some major fish kills if it happened then."