A sewage spill was reported Wednesday morning in a forested area near Lula caused by a “foreign waste product creating the blockage,” city officials said Thursday.
The spill was located near 6150 Athens Street, coming from a main sewer transmission line. The spill was discovered at approximately 10 a.m. and the blockage was able to be removed by 12 p.m. The impacted area is located off a tributary of the Hagen Creek drainage basin.
Lula city officials notified the Georgia Environmental Protection Division immediately following the spill, as well as the Hall County Health Department. Monitoring of the tributary for fecal content has begun, according to Lula City Manager Dennis Bergin.
“The blockage had caused the spill to take place, we're still formulating the amount of the spill, but we do anticipate that it will be more than 10,000 gallons,” Bergin said. “Any amount is too much, but in this particular case, what we didn't find was that it wasn't a failure of the infrastructure.”
The area of the spill is actively being treated and will continue to be monitored in the coming days. Additionally, measures are being taken to flush the above transmission line for clearance of waste build-up.
Signs have been posted in the surrounding area notifying of the sewage spill.
City officials are asking the public to be cautious about what materials they flush down toilets, in order to avoid future blockages.
“Fortunately for us, we haven't had an incident like this since back in 2018,” Bergin said. “And I wish there was some way we could eliminate them entirely. But like I said, get folks to remember don't be flushing mop heads down the toilet, because that isn’t good for the system overall.”
