Major spill at a Macon wastewater plant feeds into local river. Has it had any impacts?

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A “major spill” caused fluids from a Macon wastewater treatment plant to flow into the Ocmulgee River last week, but the Macon Water Authority says there are no early signs of the river being impacted.

The spill happened at the Rocky Creek Water Reclamation Facility located at 4705 Mead Road, and it’s the fourth major spill at Macon’s facilities in the last year. Heavy rain caused extra water flow in the area and contributed to the spill, the water authority said. While officials are taking steps to address the problem, they’re facing obstacles.

“We have very limited options as the plant is at capacity, and strong rain events can rapidly increase the flow far above what the plant was designed and constructed to handle,” said Kate Kubesheski, director of wastewater operations who oversees the day-to-day operations of both water reclamation facilities in Macon.

The water authority reported the spill to the Georgia Department of Natural Environmental Protection Division. The water authority is required to report the incident if the discharge into the body of water exceeds 67.5 milligrams per liter of “total suspended solids” in a day. Total suspended solids are a measurement of the solids within a water or wastewater sample.

This spill eclipsed that barometer on consecutive days, according to the Macon Water Authority: on March 6 the measure was 108 mg/L and on March 7 it was 78 mg/L.

Kubesheski said when there are too many solids on the plant, and the area gets heavy rain, there’s increased water flow that pushes the solids out into the river “before they are sufficiently treated.”

The solids in the plant are a mix of waste entering the plant and microbes the plant uses to break down the waste in basins. The waste is a mix of municipal and industrial waste, though most of it is industrial.

Kubesheski said staff have been working to get the aerators back on, which the plant uses to provide oxygen to the microbes.

“We shut down some of our equipment to cause less mixing in the basins to try and let the solids settle in the hopes that the excess flow will not be able to carry them to the effluent,” she said. “We’re also removing as many solids as we can without disrupting the treatment process to reduce the overall inventory.”

A Macon Water Authority report states the facility is making continual adjustments to the aeration basins and clarifiers, when possible, to try to manage the solids onsite without more of it flowing into the river. Pressing is being done continuously if storage room is available.

Plant expansion could address issue

But these actions don’t always do enough to completely solve the problem, and options are sometimes limited, Kubesheski said.

“At times they aren’t enough to keep us from losing solids to the effluent,” she said, which is a term used to describe the outflowing material going into the river. “However, the amount lost is minor compared to the amount of solids retained in the plant during these times.”

Kubesheski explained the river is monitored for a year after a spill event and so far, no negative impact on the river has been seen.

“The flow from the plant is a small percentage of the overall river flow, and the solids we lose are treated, just not to our normal standard,” she said. “We monitor the river for impact for a full year after a spill event - we haven’t seen any negative impacts on the river.”

Kubesheski added that the water authority is pursuing options for plant expansion.

“The Macon Water Authority is actively pursuing options for plant expansion at this time to help prevent this from continuing to occur in the future,” she said.

This story was originally published March 14, 2024 at 5:00 AM.