Georgia officials in a town south of Atlanta told residents not to drink tap water after a fuel spill at Atlanta’s airport may have contaminated the Flint River, according to city officials and the Associated Press.
Griffin, which officials said serves more than 20,000 customers, advised residents Friday to use bottled water for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth, and warned that the tap water might not be safe even if it was boiled. The city also said it was testing its water to determine whether it was safe to resume normal use.
Airport officials said the spill happened Friday morning and that cleanup operations were under way at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to an airport spokesperson quoted by the Associated Press. The spokesperson, Alnissa Ruiz-Craig, said she could not say how much fuel escaped or why it happened.
Griffin officials said they shut down water intakes from the Flint River as a precaution, even though they did not believe the contaminated water reached the city. They said the Flint originates near the airport and runs through the region in a complex path that includes headwaters that flow through pipes under the airfield before the river becomes a major Georgia waterway farther downstream.
The Associated Press reported that jet fuel and sewage spills from the airport have repeatedly contaminated the Flint River headwaters in the past. In response to the current spill, Griffin said it began using drinking water from an unaffected reservoir in nearby Pike County while it evaluated water quality.
Griffin officials also said they opened fire hydrants to flush the water system during the precautionary period, and continued water testing as cleanup work proceeded at the airport.