ATLANTA — A spill on the South River led to the deaths of more than 1,200 fish.
In a recent report, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said the fish kill in late June, where 1,254 fish died, was a result of a chemical spill from Atlanta’s South River Water Reclamation Center.
But the City of Atlanta says they disagree.
DNR officials said the water facility had been subject to a four-inch water line rupture, leading to the chemicals making it to the water system.
An estimate on the dead fish’s combined value was $4,751, according to DNR.
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State officials said that rupture, involving 3,800 gallons of ferric chloride, ended up flooding the basement of the facility.
Based on the investigation, state staff reported that they could “reasonably conclude that the June 27, 2026 fish kill was caused by exposure to an unknown quantity of acidic ferric chloride solution discharged from SRWRC.”
The Atlanta Department of Watershed Management informed DNR and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division of “an operational incident” at the facility on June 27, “involving a previously undetected reuse water line leak that allowed ferric chloride to mix with reuse water and migrate through the chemical building.”
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While DWM staff shut the water off, the report from DNR says the ferric chloride solution had moved to the basement and caustic spill basin, and “may have exited the building through cracks and flowed along pavement to a storm drain that discharges to the South River.”
Watershed officials in Atlanta later estimated that roughly 300 gallons of diluted ferric chloride entered a drainage ditch, feeding into the portion of South River that the fish kill was reported in.
“Subsequent stormwater infrastructure maps and as-built drawings provided by DWM demonstrated that drainage from the area near the ferric chloride dosing building flows directly to Outfall 2, where the orange effluent was observed,” DNR said.
In response to the state’s findings, Atlanta officials said they maintained their position, denying that the fish kill was due to the chemical spill from SRWRC.
While EPD and DNR tested water and other physical evidence across the water system from before the plant and to the end of the fish kill zone, Atlanta said it disagreed the investigators’ conclusion that DWM operations caused the fish kill.
State investigators said that water samples taken from the site were within normal range of iron concentration, but the sample collected at the site of Outfall No. 2, near where the fish kill was, did not get collected until five days after the spill.
Atlanta officials said that the city water department “continues to believe there is insufficient evidence establishing a definitive causal connection between the incident and the observed fish mortality.”
DWM said it had fully cooperated with the state in their investigation by providing operational records, environmental sampling data and technical expertise.
“There is no direct evidence demonstrating that any chemicals reached the South River, and water quality samples collected by DWM following the incident were within normal ranges for iron concentrations,” according to the Atlanta water department.
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