WELLNESS
BACK TO SCHOOL
BACK TO SCHOOL
With summer’s heat beating down upon us, health officials remind us to drink plenty of water and be on the lookout signs a loved one may be suffering from heatrelated illness. A9
All over the East Metro, parents and students are preparing for school by getting immunizations, buying clothes and stocking up on school supplies. See valuable tips in our Back-to-School guide. Section B.
Back to school season offers an opportunity to teach kids how healthy foods like fruits and vegetables can be tasty, too. B6
Drink up in hot weather
Copyright © 2010 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Summer break winding down
July 24, 2010
Healthy meals aplenty
Volume 16, Number 13
www.crossroadsnews.com
Decisive Frolicking in the polluted South River wins for Johnson, Watson “The stream is polluted. Being in the water could make you sick.”
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker and Carla Parker
coming to the river from as far away as Henry County. DeKalb District Five Commissioner Lee May said Thursday he would see what can be done to discourage access to the river. “I didn’t know all that was going on,” he said. “That’s a public safety issue.” On July 16, there were families from Lithonia and Decatur, as well as a group of young people from Stockbridge armed with big tubes for floating down the white waters rushing over huge boulders in the river. All were oblivious to the condition of the river – considered one of Georgia’s nastiest because of combined sewer overflows from
Congressman Hank Johnson will take on Republican challenger Liz Carter in the fall, and former state Rep. Stan Watson will take the Super District 7 seat on the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners in January. Both candidates won convincingly in the July 20 primary. Johnson beat back challenges from former DeKalb CEO Vernon Hank Johnson Jones and Commissioner Connie Stokes with 55.2 percent of the vote. Jones got 26.4 percent, and Stokes received 18.4 percent. Carter won 54.9 percent of the Republican vote, followed by Larry Gause with 25.3 Stan Watson percent, Victor Armendariz with 10.1 percent, and Cory Ruth with 9.7 percent. Surrounded by more than 200 jubilant Fourth District supporters, Johnson said he will continue to represent them with integrity. “I will continue to do what’s right,” he said. “I am not done fighting yet, not by a long shot. I am going to keep fighting for what’s right even when it is not popular. I am going to keep working with our great president, President Obama, to move this country forward. My record is clear. It’s clean and it’s strong and I am going to continue to run proudly on my record. I am going to keep on fighting and I am going to keep on winning and I am going to deliver for the people of the 4th District.” Stokes told her disappointed supporters to cheer up. “Don’t act like anyone died,” she told them. “It’s all good. Somebody has to lose. It’s a part of the process and I clearly understand the process.” Jones, who called to congratulate Johnson, said he is not done in politics but that it’s too early to tell what his next move will be. “The final chapter certainly hasn’t been written for Vernon Jones,” he said. Watson, who was favored to win the seat, said he is going to start attending
Please see SOUTH RIVER, page A9
Please see PRIMARY, page A2
Photos by Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
A small boy submerges himself in the waters of the South River, oblivious to the high levels of fecal coliform bacteria that live in the river, which is downstream from two DeKalb County and two city of Atlanta sewage treatment plants. Fecal coliform can cause stomach illnesses.
No signs warn revelers of dangers in water By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Families and children who have been frolicking in the South River at Panola and Snapfinger roads are bathing and playing in one of the state’s most contaminated rivers. In the three weeks since the newly constructed 2.4-mile South River leg of the Arabia Mountain Trail opened, hundreds of adults and kids have been sliding, tubing and bathing in the waters that are downstream from DeKalb County’s Snapfinger Wastewater Treatment Plant and the city of Atlanta’s South River and Intrenchment waste water treatment plants. On Friday evenings, the sandy banks of the river come alive with families lighting up grills and playing music while their children wade in water that is contaminated with fecal coliform and PCBs. Susan Salter, who manages the state’s Impaired Waters list for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, said Tuesday that all 14 miles of the South River that run through DeKalb County are “impaired” and full of fecal coliform and PCBs. “Fecal coliform is a bacteria that lives in the intestines of human and other warmblooded mammals like dogs and birds,” she said. “Its presence is an indication that there is fecal contamination in the water. The stream is polluted. Being in the water could make you sick.” Gordon Cargle, a DeKalb Board of Health Environmental Health Department
Families, including a woman with a small baby, gather on the sandy bank while others romp in the South River at Panola Road near the Snapfinger Road bridge.
program manager, said people who bathe in water contaminated with fecal coliform are at risk for a number of bacteria and viruses that cause diarrhea and stomach illnesses. Cargle said the list includes E. coli, giardia, shigella, norovirus and crypto. “They resemble food-borne illnesses and people often think they have eaten something bad, but it is actually the water they have been bathing in,” he said. Crowds of adults, teens and children began flocking to the site after the parking area for the South River Trail opened on the banks of the river late last month. With no signs warning them not to bathe and fish in the river – and the inviting sound of water beckoning them – people have been