ATLANTA — The city of Atlanta has outlined fixes for its largest wastewater treatment plant, after it was slapped with dozens of violations last month for releasing potentially dangerous levels of bacteria into the Chattahoochee River.

While the situation has improved, local environmental groups are still urging the public to use caution when paddling, fishing, or physically contacting the river between where the plant’s wastewater empties into the river near Atlanta Road and Franklin, Georgia, roughly 60 miles downstream.

The city’s plans were submitted to regulators at the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) on April 19 in response to a notice about dozens of apparent violations emanating from the R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center. The plant, located in northwest Atlanta on the Chattahoochee, is one of the largest of its kind in the Southeast and is permitted to discharge as much as 100 million gallons of treated wastewater every day into the river.

Since last July, the facility’s discharges have repeatedly failed to meet state and federal standards, according to a March 22 letter sent from EPD to Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, which runs R.M. Clayton.

EPD officials said levels of E. coli, ammonia, phosphorus and more in the facility’s wastewater releases into the river were above allowed limits on 48 occasions between July 2023 and February. Contact with water containing high levels of E.coli and other sewage-borne pathogens can lead to serious illness, while ammonia and phosphorus feed algae blooms and can cause fish kills.

The plant also failed to report violations to EPD within 24 hours of learning of them, as its required to do, the letter says. It was not immediately clear whether the city could face fines for the alleged infractions.

In March, the nonprofit Chattahoochee Riverkeeper had continued detecting concentrations of units of E. coli around the facility’s outfall that were about 950 times higher than what the federal government considers safe for swimming and recreation.

In the wake of the riverkeeper’s findings, EPD inspectors visited the plant on March 7 and found many of its treatment systems were damaged or completely offline.

In its response to the alleged violations and inspection report, Watershed Commissioner Mikita Browning blamed the problems on a series of “illicit” discharges that made their way into the R.M. Clayton Plant in March and May of last year. In addition to receiving sewage, the plant accepts wastewater from industrial customers.

The discharges contained high levels of ammonia and nitrogen, Browning said, which disrupted the bacteria the plant uses to treat the sewage it receives. Browning said the department investigated the source, but was unable to pinpoint their origin.

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