Officials are asking anglers at a park in Lawrenceville to throw back their catches after raw sewage spilled into the lake there earlier this week.
Gwinnett County spokesman Joe Sorenson said an 8-inch pipe close to Rhodes Jordan Park burst Wednesday, causing 40,000 gallons of raw sewage to leak into a stream that empties into the park’s lake. He said officials received an alert from water monitors that day but they could not find the source of the leak until Thursday morning.
Crews have since diverted the sewage around the break in the pipe and posted signs throughout the park warning visitors of the situation. Under Georgia Environmental Protection Division definitions, any sanitary sewer overflows more than 10,000 gallons are considered “major.”
Sorenson said he advises anglers throw back any fish they may have caught from the lake. However, because the lake contains millions of gallons of water, he said he doesn’t expect the spill to cause too much harm to the park.
“We don’t expect it to have a big impact,” Sorenson said. “It’s not an enormous spill and it probably won’t have a huge impact for more than a few days.”
The leak was reported to the GEPD and will continue to be monitored over the next year, per regulations. Sorenson said signs will stay up for a week.
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