9.6.2024 South River at Forrest Park Rd runs black with soot and toxic runoff. Dissolved Oxygen levels cannot support aquatic life.
Mulch accumulates heat. Paired with very little rain in the area for weeks, the pile spontaneously combusted.
9.9.24 South River at Intrenchment Creek. Credit: SRWA
9.9.24 Dead Sunfish (Bream), South River at Bouldercrest Rd. Credit: Therese Kelly
9.8.24 Dead minnow, South River at Constitution Lakes. Credit: Peter Peteet
9.9.24 Crayfish, South River at Bouldercrest Rd, approx 5 river miles downstream of the fire. Credit: Therese Kelly
For immediate release
September 9, 2024 (updated 9.12.24)
Documentation (see file names for info inc. image credits)
POC: Margaret Spalding, Executive Director, South River Watershed Alliance, 706-254-9526 / mspalding@southriverga.org; Dr. Sarah H. Ledford, 404-413-5780; Philip Meeker (witness & resident near the fire) 3176400613; Dr Jacqueline Echols, SRWA, 404-285-3756
PRESS RELEASE
Massive fertilized mulch fire causes major contamination, confirmed fish kill on the South River
2099 Jonesboro Rd SE and 561 Harper Rd SE, Atlanta GA 30315 (Atlanta District 1, Jason Winston) - A mulch pile, believed to contain fertilizer (or animal waste of some kind) and methyl bromide (from pallet wood) among other chemical substances, caught fire on Thursday September 5th in the neighborhood of Lakewood and the headwaters of the South River. Witnesses reported a blazing “mountain of mulch” approximately 3 stories high, which has since been dismantled by the Atlanta Fire Department who continued to fight/monitor the smoldering fire into 9.8.24. This location is less than 1 mile from the South River and sits on a tributary of the river. An unknown amount of contaminated, deoxygenated runoff from the Fire Department’s attempt to tame the blaze (dousing the flames over the course of four days) exited the site via the tributary and/or a stormdrain.
On Friday afternoon, Georgia State University Department of Geosciences and the South River Watershed Alliance’s (SRWA) Water Quality Monitoring Team (WQMT) interns, Therese Kelly and Finn Gillette, observed that the South River at Forrest Park Rd was running black. Samples collected were smoky and opaque.
This event is now documented to have caused fish and other wildlife to perish up to at least five river miles downstream of the site. Dissolved Oxygen levels on the river dipped below 2 mg/L over 3.5 miles below the fire, below the levels necessary to sustain aquatic life, and below 3 mg/L over 10 miles from the site. According to Dr. Sarah H. Ledford, Associate Professor GSU, Department of Geosciences, “Anything below 2 mg/L is just about a guaranteed fish kill.”. SRWA and Georgia State University (GSU) Department of Geosciences continue to actively monitor several sites and follow the plume as it moves downstream. According to Ledford, samples taken on the South River just downstream of the fire on Friday evening came in “over our maximum measurement level [for E. coli] at a 1:100 dilution (so >241,980 MPN/100 mL), indicating the mulch likely has fertilizer (or other animal waste) in it.”. The Environmental Protection Agency ECHO Database indicates no industrial stormwater permit exists for this site, as is required for industrial sites.
“Such a facility should never have been allowed in the City and this devastation was entirely preventable. The predominately low-income and minority residents of the South River watershed yet again have to bear the burden of the City’s refusal to follow the law and address environmental injustice.” - Dr. Sarah H. Ledford, Associate Professor GSU, Department of Geosciences (sledford@gsu.edu / 404-413-5780)
“Major contamination events like this, and massive high impact development like Cop City, are par for the course in the historic and ongoing disinvestment and environmental devastation inflicted throughout the South River corridor (in Atlanta and DeKalb County).” - Margaret Spalding, Executive Director, SRWA
“This area of southeast Atlanta near the South River attracts businesses that degrade the environment and the City’s code enforcement in the area is lax, demonstrated here by the lack of an MS4 stormwater permit.” - Jacqueline Echols, Board President, SRWA
City of Atlanta Fire Department has not responded to inquiries regarding use of fire retardants (containing PFAS). Weather forecasts predict rain over the course of the next 6 days, however as of 9.12.24, no action has been taken by the land owner, GA EPD or City of Atlanta to address further contamination from impending stormwater runoff.
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