ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Advocates are threatening to file lawsuits against the City of Atlanta, claiming the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has continuously polluted local waterways. The Flint Riverkeeper and Southern Environmental Law Center say the airport has spilled jet fuel, sewage, de-icing fluid, trash and more into the Flint River and connecting creeks. In a Wednesday letter to the city, the organizations said they will file a Clean Water Act lawsuit within 60 days and a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act lawsuit within 90 days. Flowing about 349 miles in total, the Flint River’s headwaters are just south of the airport. According to the advocates, the river provides drinking water for more than 400,000 people in Clayton, Coweta, Fayette, Pike and Spalding Counties. More than 1 million Georgians use it for drinking, swimming, fishing and other purposes. The groups claim the airport has violated federal clean water and solid waste laws for years. Whenever rainwater exceeds 0.03 inches per hour, pollutant-laden stormwater bypasses treatment and flows directly into the water, the organizations say in the letter. In 2026 alone, three major spills also allegedly broke out — one from a ruptured fuel pit hydrant that spilled at least 28,000 gallons in late January, one from April where an unknown amount of an “unidentified petroleum-based product” got into the river, and one over Memorial Day weekend that leaked between 9,000 and 13,000…
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