CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Gordon Rogers pointed out on a map what he’s sure was a jet fuel spill into the Flint River: “State Road 54 is how far downstream we smelled and saw it.”
Rogers is the Riverkeeper with the environmental group that watches over the Flint.
His team took video during the Memorial Day weekend near the Clayton/Spalding County line, just south of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The third jet fuel spill this year is under investigation by both the airport and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. More than 26,000 gallons was skimmed out shortly after Memorial Day.
“It’s a bad year?” Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen asked Rogers at the Riverkeeper’s home Friday in Taylor County.
“Yeah. I would say the airport is not having a good year, and neither is the river,” he said.
The Environmental Protection Division estimated up to 20,000 gallons of jet fuel reached the river in January and more than 9,000 gallons of contaminated water removed after an incident in April.
“The airport hammers that very small river with fuel, deicing fluid, and other materials month, after month, after month. It does wash out, but that’s no excuse for polluting a river,” Rogers said.
Rogers says Flint Riverkeeper is now working with the Southern Environmental Law Center for possible legal action against the airport.
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