A Cobb County creek’s E. coli levels appear to be returning to normal after an apartment complex fixed its pipe Friday that had been spewing sewage into the water.
The creek feeds right into the Chattahoochee River.
Channel 2 Action News first reported a couple days ago that the busted pipe came from the Arlington Park apartment complex property, which is off Windy Hill Road a couple miles from where the creek meets the Hooch.
At first, it wasn’t pretty.
"We're not seeing any evidence of any work that's being done here yet," Jason Ulseth with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, told the television station earlier in the week.
He said his staff saw dissolved toilet paper floating downstream.
According data cited by the United States Geological Survey, the Chattahoochee supplies metro Atlanta with much of its drinking water.
On Friday, Erik Fyfe — also with the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper group — said that E. coli levels in nearby waterways were improving.
“It’s well within the swimmable, fishable limits,” he said. “It’s not something folks need to be worried about.”
Fyfe said the federal government won’t get involved with E. coli until it hits 235 CFU, or colony forming units.
The most recent readings of the Chattahoochee around Paces Ferry were 40 CFU.
He couldn’t speak to the levels in the creek by the apartment itself, considering E. coli tests take 18 hours to process.
But he wasn’t worried.
“A spill of that size will dilute as it travels downstream and the bacteria will be broken down relatively quickly,” Fyfe said.
He said if folks are worried about getting into a body of water, they can always check the United States Geological Survey's BacteriAlert system.
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