Overview
- Heavy late‑May storms flushed warm, polluted stormwater and likely sewer overflows from Atlanta into Peachtree Creek, which flowed into the Chattahoochee and preceded a large, unprecedented fish kill downstream.
- U.S. Geological Survey monitoring found E. coli far above recreational safety thresholds at multiple sites, with readings reported as high as 2,500 colony counts per 100 mL and several locations exceeding the 235 safety benchmark.
- Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management and the Georgia EPD are collecting samples and tracking dissolved oxygen and bacteria while laboratory analyses continue and formal cause attribution is pending.
- Riverside businesses and outfitters have temporarily curtailed operations and public warnings advise people and pets to stay out of the water because exposure can cause gastrointestinal and other infections.
- Months of drought left the river at unusually low flows and low reservoir levels, which increased pollutant concentration and exposure time and made the system more vulnerable to extreme runoff and infrastructure overflows.