Chattahoochee Riverkeeper files lawsuit against Atlanta for alleged Clean Water Act violations

Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Atlanta for its ongoing pollution of the Chattahoochee River.

In July 2024, the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) sent a letter to the city saying it would have 60 days to stop discharging illegal amounts of pollutants from the RM of Clayton Water Reclamation Center or the group would file a lawsuit in federal court for violating the Clean Water Act.

The Clean Water Act requires a 60-day notice of intent to file a lawsuit.

RM Clayton is the largest wastewater treatment plant in Atlanta, handling millions of gallons of city wastewater each day.

The RM of Clayton has a permit to discharge up to 100 million gallons of treated sewage per day into the Chattahoochee River, but the facility is illegally discharging pollutants — including chemicals and harmful levels of bacteria — into the river, in violation of both its sewage discharge permit and the Clean Water Act, according to a SELC news release.

In March 2024, CRK detected dangerously elevated levels of E. coli bacteria in the Chattahoochee River and traced the source to the RM Clayton facility’s outflow, through which wastewater is discharged into the river.

Daily low-tide testing by CRK found that E. coli bacteria levels were on average 340 times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended level for safe water recreation.

CRK notified the City of Atlanta and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) that the facility was discharging large amounts of E. coli and other contaminants into the river, endangering public health, wildlife and the river ecosystem.

When word of the unsafe conditions in the river broke, Atlanta officials initially attributed the facility’s failure to heavy rainfall and repeated discharges of illegal substances. However, an inspection by Georgia EPD found the facility to be in poor condition, with problems at every stage of wastewater treatment and multiple safety hazards.

CRK’s ongoing monitoring of the facility’s effluent revealed sporadic spikes in E. coli, which can cause serious illness, especially in young children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised. CRK also detected high levels of organic matter, phosphorus, and ammonia in the facility’s effluent, which contribute to low dissolved oxygen levels in the river, causing stress to fish and other aquatic life.

In a complaint filed in federal court on Sept. 6, CRK notes that the city’s failure to properly maintain and operate the RM Clayton facility led to illegal discharges of pollutants into the Chattahoochee River for more than a year. Between July 2023 and July 2024, the facility violated permit restrictions at least 79 times.

“The City of Atlanta knows that the RM Clayton plant is failing and poses a serious threat to the health of the Chattahoochee River and all the people and wildlife that depend on it,” said Jason Ulseth, Riverkeeper and executive director of CRK, in a news release. “However, the City has allowed operational and maintenance failures at the plant to worsen over time by failing to perform even the most basic equipment repairs.”

“For months, the city failed to mitigate very real public health and environmental issues at the RM Clayton facility,” Hutton Brown, senior staff attorney in SELC’s Georgia office, said in a news release. “Because Atlanta management failed to rise to the occasion and demonstrate that it was serious about addressing this issue, we had no choice but to step in and ask the court to hold them accountable.”

In response to the city’s lack of transparency and failure to address ongoing, repeated violations at the RM Clayton facility, CRK filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Atlanta on September 6. Under the Clean Water Act, CRK will seek an injunction enjoining the city’s ongoing violations of its wastewater discharge permit, as well as civil penalties, attorneys’ fees, and costs.