EPD Finds City Of Ringgold In Violation

   People living in Catoosa County's Morris Estates Subdivision say they will seek answers to their sewage problems at tonight's Ringgold City Council Meeting.NewsChannel 9 broke this story of harmful sewage flowing from a retention pond into South Chickamauga Creek.

   The topic is not on the Council's agenda but Morris Estates residents say they will be in attendance with many questions.The silence from Ringgold upsets them. And this afternoon, we learned from Georgia's Environmental Protection Division that Ringgold, which owns and operates the sewer pond in the subdivision, is in violation.

    The problem is the e-coli level within this water dumping into South Chickamauga Creek.The city treats the pond with chlorine tablets and using the sun's oxidation. But E-P-D says e-coli levels are too high.

   Sam Buckles tells us his agency sent an enforcement order late last week to Ringgold. The city has ten days to respond. An independent lab tested the e-coli level one month ago upstream, at the discharge and downstream. 500 is the level the state requires at discharge.

    The lab found upstream water before the plant is actually worse with an e-coli level of 41 hundred. It's over 2,000 at discharge, four times the required level, and sitting at 4600, more than nine times too high, downstream from the plant. But EPD only holds the city responsibel for the level at discharge.

   Meanwhile, Sarah Schoocraft grew up here and often played in this creek. The state now says is not safe to fish from or come into contact with this water.  Schoocraft said, "It's so weird to think about, because all my friends we used to catch crawdads and everything in it and I was playing in that, along with like four or five other kids, what were we exposed to?"

    EPD says the levels have only recently hit such high levels and is in negotiation with the City of Ringgold right now to make some corrective action which includes several options. Those include a new chlorinator for the pond to reduce the e-coli level or hooking into a pipe that takes the sewage on to Moccasin Bend.