Story Pitch: What’s in Your Water?

A plastic barrier implemented to seperate the North Oconee River and apartment complexes on Oconee Street. A few blocks down this spot, a decomposing body was found in the waterway.

Chemicals leaching from decomposing bodies into drinking water does not sound refreshing to anyone. In reality, this is what contaminates the North Oconee River, which is a major source of Athens-Clarke County drinking water. There’s more: guns, E. Coli and wastewater runoff have also been discovered. Once the water from the contaminated river is picked up by water treatment facilities, it is treated and on its way to the pipes of Athens homes.

How these contaminants entered this major body of water worries many academics, volunteers and members of the local government. Solutions have tried to be implemented, but little change has occurred despite the efforts. To Laurel Loftin, a public utilities worker and water conservation coordinator, the solution does not lie in excessively treating water, but exposing the public to the body of water. By increasing connections between humans and waterways, people would, hopefully, become more mindful of their actions. There is one barrier preventing this: local government implemented a 75 foot barrier between bodies of water and commercial development. This barrier is a space between any body of water and commercial-use land where development is prohibited.