The city of Atlanta is facing a new federal lawsuit over claims the city’s wastewater treatment plants have repeatedly released poorly treated sewage into the waterway containing dangerous levels of bacteria and other pollutants.
The suit was filed Friday in an Atlanta federal court on behalf of the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, just over two months after the group told the city it would sue if it did not stop sending pollution into the river . The Riverkeeper is represented in the case by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The complaint focuses on the R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center in northwest Atlanta, the city’s largest sewage treatment plant. R.M. Clayton is permitted to release as much as 100 million gallons of treated wastewater every day into the Chattahoochee.
The facility’s permits restrict the amount of E. coli, ammonia, phosphorus and more that can be left in the wastewater when it is discharged into the river. The lawsuit claims R.M Clayton exceeded its allowed pollution limits at least 79 times from July 2023 to July this year, violating the federal Clean Water Act and its state permit.