Getting problems fixed the first time isn’t just a noble goal but often a necessity for the health of community residents. Say, for example, a community’s water is polluted with bacteria that poses a health risk. A trial and error process of fixing that water contamination problem just won’t do.
Residents who live near Proctor Creek in Atlanta, Georgia, are concerned that past government efforts to clean up the creek didn’t ultimately fix the health problem. Today, about seven years after a $112 million attempt at fixing the sewage and storm water problems that were contaminating the water, E. coli bacteria is still a danger. Clean water is still something that the community must fight for.
In what Independent Mail describes as a low-income area of Atlanta, Proctor Creek is not as clean as it should be according to environmental laws. The E. coli level is too high, and scientists have concluded that the bacteria comes from human waste.
The problem is with the sewer systems in the specific area of Georgia. When storm water hits and runs around the sewer pipes, bacteria is somehow seeping out of the pipes and into the water that runs to the creek and eventually the Chattahoochee River. The bacteria concentration that gets to river is supposedly not a threat, but the amount in the specific creek is enough to threaten the well-being of residents around it.
Government officials in the Georgia area insist that they truly believed that they’d fixed the water contamination problem in the past effort. They have begun looking into the issue again, this time they claim with improved technology that can better pinpoint the areas of concern within the complex sewer system.
Residents who do get sick because of a failure to follow environmental laws or other negligence can discuss the land and health matter with an environmental attorney. If a group is required to and says that it has fixed a pollution problem, it should have fixed that pollution problem.
Source: Independent Mail, “Waste still seeps into pollution-plagued Georgia creek,” Katie Leslie, Jan. 23, 2014