atlanta — A town south of Atlanta advised residents Friday not to drink tap water after a fuel spill at the Atlanta airport polluted the Flint River.
The city of Griffin, whose water system serves more than 20,000 customers, said the water may not be safe to drink even if it was boiled and asked people to use bottled water instead for drinking, cooking or brushing teeth.
Alenissa Ruiz Craig, a spokeswoman for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, said the fuel spill occurred Friday morning and cleanup was underway. It could not determine the amount of fuel leaking or the cause.
Griffin officials said they shut off water intakes from Flint as a precaution, although they do not believe contaminated water reached the city. The Flint River originates near the airport, with most of its headwaters hidden in pipes that flow under the sprawling airport, before flowing southwest and becoming one of Georgia’s major rivers on its way to merging into the Apalachicola River in Florida.
Jet fuel and wastewater leaks from the airport repeatedly polluted Flint’s headwaters.
Griffin officials said they are now using drinking water from an unaffected reservoir in nearby Pike County and have opened fire hydrants to flush the water system. The city is testing its water to determine if it is safe.