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July 29, 2010

Storm leads to wastewater spill at Whitfield landfill

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com

DALTON — A lightning strike Monday night knocked out pump controls at the landfill at 4189 Old Dixie Highway, causing 88,000 gallons of wastewater to overflow into a stormwater retention pond,  then into a nearby stream.

Norman Barashick, executive director of the Dalton-Whitfield Regional Solid Waste Management Authority, said lightning struck the controls on a system that drains water from the landfill around 4:30 p.m. Monday.

“We discovered it the next morning around 7:15 or 7:30 a.m.,” he said.

The wastewater mixed with the rainfall from the storm in the retention pond and flowed into  an unnamed tributary of Thomason Creek.

Barashick said the system was shut down as soon as the problem was discovered and the controls were repaired. The solid waste authority also notified the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) as well as local health departments.

“We have done some initial monitoring downstream of the spill, and we don’t see anything that points to any impact from this release. But we will continue to monitor this,” he said.

“This is first time anything of this extent has occurred here. We are going to discuss with our engineers what we can do to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” Barashick said.

EPD officials in Cartersville said any spill over 10,000 gallons is considered a major spill but they have had no reports of fish kills or other damage from the spill. They said the agency will  likely send the solid waste authority an enforcement order to correct any issues with the pumps and to continue monitoring water downstream from the spill.

 

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