Blog By: Camille Grout
On September 6, 2024, The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Atlanta for its alleged pollution of the Chattahoochee River.[1] The city’s largest wastewater treatment plant, R.M. Clayton, has allegedly been violating its permit and the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into the river outside its permitted 100 million gallons of wastewater per day.[2] The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, a non-profit represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, officially filed their complaint in the Northern District of Georgia seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.[3]
The Chattahoochee River begins at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains in northeast Georgia and flows down to Apalachicola Bay, Florida.[4] The river is the most heavily-used water resource in Georgia, yet it is the smallest river system in the country to provide water for a major metropolitan city.[5] The river faces myriad challenges to its health and integrity due to stormwater pollution, increased water consumption, and more.[6] Despite improvements over the last few decades, over 1,000 miles of the watershed do not meet water quality standards.[7] Downstream from Atlanta, in Florida, the man-made water quality problems impact essential biodiversity hubs in the Gulf of Mexico.[8] Apalachicola Bay, where the river ends, is home to one of the most productive fisheries in the country that supports the United States’ multi-million dollar seafood business.[9] The Chattahoochee River, which many American citizens outside Florida and Georgia only know because of Alan Jackson, affects millions of people.
The City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management operates three Water Reclamation Centers that treat more than 188 million gallons of wastewater per day serving more than 1.2 million people.[10] The Atlanta sewer system dates back to the early 19th century and, while some modernization has been made, a large part of that original infrastructure remains.[11] In 1995, the Environmental Protection Agency filed a lawsuit alleging that improvements to Atlanta’s sewer system were inadequate to comply with modern water quality standards.[12] The City of Atlanta settled the suit with a federal consent decree committing the City to an accelerated program to improve water quality and eliminate violations.[13] In 1999, the EPA issued a second consent decree that required the City of Atlanta to address its continuously-aging sewer infrastructure; the consent decree has been modified to include projects that address water quality violations from Water Reclamation Centers.[14] The city appears to have failed to maintain the infrastructure put in place by these consent decrees.[15]
As early as March, samples from R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Facility have shown E. Coli levels above the legally-acceptable threshold polluting the Chattahoochee River.[16] According to the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, the facility allegedly violated its permitted wastewater discharge limitations at least 79 times.[17] In June, per the Clean Water Act, the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper filed a notice of intent to sue.[18] This sixty-day warning is intended to give the source of pollution (in this case, the City of Atlanta) an opportunity to fix the problem; Chattahoochee Riverkeeper alleged they hoped the notice would motivate the City of Atlanta to work collaboratively.[19] According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, the federal lawsuit was filed in response to the city’s lack of transparency and failure to address the ongoing, repeated violations.[20]
The best-case scenario for this litigation is to issue and implement a new consent decree. According to the filed complaint, the relief that the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is seeking includes: (1) declaratory judgment, (2) an enforcement order and injunction, (3) civil penalties per day of violation, (4) fees, and (5) any further relief deemed just and proper.[21] Should the court find in favor of the plaintiffs, the City of Atlanta faces immense costs for their violations—and costs of litigation—that could be better spent on improving the infrastructure itself. The prior consent decrees provided the City of Atlanta an opportunity backed by legal enforcement to avoid some of the major costs associated with litigation and directed them to invest in the decaying system causing the issues.[22] The prior consent decrees demonstrated some success in forcing the City to improve the system; failure to maintain the improved infrastructure is what brought the City back into court.[23]
Based on the seeming success of prior consent decrees, the City of Atlanta should begin negotiations with the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper to implement a new federal consent decree that ideally includes requirements for maintenance in addition to improvements to facilities like R.M. Clayton. It has been over twenty years since the last consent decree was issued.[24] While those decrees have been modified, extended, and amended to keep up with modern needs, a new consent decree could save the City of Atlanta and the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper from potentially expensive and drawn-out litigation[25] It could provide a legally enforceable mechanism to re-up the investments, improvements, and maintenance into the aging Atlanta sewer system. Perhaps most importantly, a new consent decree can protect the residents of the City of Atlanta and the millions of other living beings who rely on the Chattahoochee River’s health.
[1] Press Release, S. Env’t L. Ctr., Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, SELC, file suit against city of Atlanta for violating Clean Water Act (Sept. 6, 2024).
[2] Id.
[3] Complaint, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Inc. v. City of Atlanta, Ga., No. 1:24-cv-03989-SDG (N.D.Ga. filed Sept. 6, 2024).
[4]Water Quality – Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Nat’l Park Serv., https://www.nps.gov/chat/learn/nature/waterquality.htm (last updated Jan. 13, 2022) [https://perma.cc/GR8S-LQ26].
[5] Our River, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, https://chattahoochee.org/our-river/ (last visited Nov. 3, 2024).
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Water Quality – Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, supra note 4.
[9] Id.
[10] The History of Clean Water Atlanta, City of Atlanta Watershed Management, https://cleanwateratlanta.h2o4atl.com/index.php/history-3/ (last visited Nov. 3, 2024) [https://perma.cc/7BZY-DHLM].
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Marisa Mecke, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper files federal Clean Water Act lawsuit against City of Atlanta for sewage pollution, WABE (Sept. 6, 2024), https://www.wabe.org/chattahoochee-riverkeeper-files-federal-clean-water-act-lawsuit-against-city-of-atlanta-for-sewage-pollution/ [https://perma.cc/E9KR-SFYW].
[16] Id.
[17] Id.
[18] Id.
[19] Id.
[20] Press Release, supra note 1.
[21] Complaint at 37, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Inc. v. City of Atlanta, Georgia No. 1:24-cv-03989-SDG (N.D. Ga. filed Sept. 6, 2024).
[22] The History of Clean Water Atlanta, supra note 10.
[23] Id.
[24] Id.
[25] Id.