Flint Riverkeeper Announces IntentTo Sue Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson

Flint Riverkeeper has put the City of Atlanta on notice it will sue if the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport continues to pollute the Flint River.
The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South.
According to a press release by Flint Riverkeeper, on July 29 the organization and the Southern Environmental Law Center sent a letter of intent to sue to the City of Atlanta as the owner and operator of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, citing the airport’s ongoing illegal pollution of the Flint River in violation of federal clean water and solid waste laws.
According to the release, for years, the airport has repeatedly spilled jet fuel, sewage, deicing fluid, and other pollutants from its stormwater and sewage infrastructure into the Flint River, Sullivan Creek, and Mud Creek. Trash clearly originating from the airport, including luggage tags and ear plugs, routinely flows into the Flint when it rains.
The release further reads there have already been three major fuel spills from the airport in 2026. In late January, a ruptured fuel pit hydrant spilled at least 28,000 gallons of fuel into the Flint River. Downstream communities and drinking water utilities were not notified about the spill for eight days. In late April, airport officials reported an unknown quantity of an “unidentified petroleum-based product” contaminating the river’s headwaters. Another spill occurred over Memorial Day weekend, causing between 9,000 and 13,000 gallons to leak into the river.
“Downstream sampling also shows elevated levels of forever chemicals known as PFAS. Water quality sampling shows levels of PFAS in the Flint River just downstream of the airport that exceed federal drinking water limits for PFOA and PFOS, with quarterly readings that are routinely ten times higher. The City of Griffin and Clayton County pull portions of their drinking water supply from the Flint River downstream of the airport, and sampling results for both drinking water systems show high levels of PFAS contamination,” the release states.
The Flint Riverkeeper also charges that, because the Flint begins just above the airport and flows beneath it, this pollution has far-reaching, significant impacts on the river’s health. The Flint River provides drinking water to more than 400,000 people in downstream communities throughout Clayton, Coweta, Fayette, Pike, and Spalding Counties, and over one million Georgians use it for drinking, swimming, fishing, commercial, agricultural, and industrial purposes.
While the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has taken enforcement actions in response to fuel and sewage spills at the airport over the years, ongoing clean water violations raise concerns that the pattern of pollution could continue into the future.
“Despite Flint Riverkeeper’s decade-long efforts to work alongside and encourage airport officials to address its pollution, allowing this pattern to continue is unacceptable for the downstream communities, farmers, businesses, paddlers, hunters, and anglers that depend on a clean, healthy river,” said Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper. “These spills are not one-time events — no one should have to worry about their water smelling and tasting like jet fuel when they turn on the tap or walk down to the river’s edge. We hope the City of Atlanta will take immediate action to address this pollution and be better stewards of the Flint River.”
“Repeated spills into the Flint River cannot become the status quo,” said April Lipscomb, Senior Attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center. “We need the City of Atlanta to protect the Flint River at its source for cleaner drinking water, healthier wildlife, and safer places for people to fish, paddle, and enjoy the river for generations to come.”