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COLUMBUS, Ga. — Local waterways feeding the downtown section of the Chattahoochee River have consistently shown dangerously high levels of E. Coli bacteria, though locals are left clueless as they continue to play in the poop-filled water.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the presence of E. Coli in surface water like the Chattahoochee provides direct evidence of fecal contamination.

The Chattahoochee River Keeper, or CRK for short, is a non-profit that measures contamination levels throughout the Chattahoochee River Basin. According to CRK’s most recently-published data, areas like Flat Rock Park and Phenix City’s Mill Creek have E. Coli levels more than ten times the EPA’s safe limit for recreational activity.

According to EPA regulations, the presence of 235 cfu/100mL of E. Coli legally mandates the shutting of waters from public recreational use until safer levels are reached. However, the EPA recommends a much lower level be maintained of just 126 cfu/100mL of water.

The downtown section of the river’s last-published E. Coli measurement was on October 4, 2021, which revealed an E. Coli presence of 3,155 cfu/100mL — a level 13.4 times the EPA’s absolute maximum safety limit.

Conveniently, there has been no data published on the river’s downtown section since.

However, surrounding waterways that feed the Chattahoochee River’s downtown stretch have continued to show levels ten times the EPA’s limit as recently as last month.

Flat Rock Park, located on Warm Springs Road, was measured just last month on June 9, 2023. The measurement showed an E. Coli presence of 2,905 cfu/100mL, which is 12.36 times the EPA’s safety limit.

The section of Phenix City’s Mill Creek that flows directly into the river was also measured on June 8, 2023. The measurement showed an E. Coli presence of 1,065 cfu/100mL, which is 4.5 times the EPA’s safety limit.

Back in April of 2022, a local superior court judge denied Columbus Water Works’ petition to excuse their compliance with the EPA’s safety regulations. The judge’s decision to force CWW’s compliance came after a lengthy seven-year legal battle where CWW fought to excuse themselves from having to comply with the Federal Clean Water Act so they could continue dumping literal poop into the downtown section of the river.

In July of last year, CWW filed an appeal.

Even without CWW’s fecal fiasco, the E. Coli bacteria is doing a good enough job on its own of finding its ways into the waters that dump into the downtown section of the river — though that measured reality just-so-happens to conveniently not have any data available for the whitewater park itself. How aMaZiNg.

Nonetheless, locals were left clueless during the Fourth of July weekend as they not only waded and played in the poop-contaminated waters off the downtown riverwalk, but went so far as to cook and eat their food on floating grills.

Gross.

Maybe we ought to properly measure the river’s E. Coli cfu level every week like the CRK’s website says we should, and then it should be publicly published online like it used to be.

It’s rather odd how that stopped after the last-measured level in the whitewater park was 13.4 times the amount required to keep the river — and commerce — open for business.

How fecally aMaZiNg that is.

Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.

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