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Health & Fitness

Do your kids or dogs play in the creek? Maybe they shouldn't

Would you let your kids or dog play in the creek? I don’t think so! While I believe that our Buckhead creeks have gotten better on the whole since we were admonished to stay out of certain ones as children, pollution events in certain creeks in our neighborhoods seem to happen all the time.

The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) recently reported yet another Buckhead sewage spill in their September 5th RiverFlash newsletter. The spill, which was also reported by Buckhead Patch, was discovered in Tanyard Creek by local volunteers of Riverkeeper’s Neighborhood Water Watch Program. Tanyard Creek flows through a number of Buckhead neighborhoods in the Tanyard Creek Park area including Collier Hills.

Riverkeeper brought this latest spill to the attention of Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management, and conducted a thorough investigation. They have identified several potential sources including private businesses. Bacteria levels downstream in Tanyard Park have since subsided. Riverkeeper representatives attended a Collier Hills neighborhood meeting with city officials in September and provided an update on the situation to neighbors. Riverkeeper has pledged to continue their weekly monitoring at multiple locations along the creek.

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This spill came on the heels of a July incident where nearly 10,000 gallons of raw sewage from a private lift station was dumped  into Tanyard Creek and caused a large fish kill. According to the Riverkeeper, an enforcement action regarding that spill is being pursued by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

I used to live along Peachtree Creek in the 90's, and while I have seen great improvement, we still have a long way to go.

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Boyd Leake is a Buckhead native and the founder and owner of Community Environmental. Since 1995 he has been an environmental and sustainability consultant with an emphasis on recycling, composting and “green” solid waste management.

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