JULIETTE, Ga. — Every now and then, John Dupree takes his family out to Lake Juliette to fish, "We've been out here several times and fished and enjoyed it," only for sport, never a meal, he says. "I have never ate a fish out of here and I never will. I just don't trust that the lake itself isn't contaminated."
After several years of well water testing, Altamaha Riverkeeper says they've found toxic heavy metals in people's drinking water surrounding Plant Scherer.
What about Lake Juliette water and the fish swimming in it? We set out to verify, are the fish safe to eat?
According to the state environmental protection division, there are only restrictions on largemouth bass, due to mercury, which they say is common in large fish in lakes and rivers throughout the state.
They recommend you only eat them once a week. Aside from that, there's no other restrictions, so according to the state, it's safe.
Altamaha Riverkeeper Fletcher Sams points out what surrounds the water the fish live in using a diagram straight from Georgia Power's website.
He explains that the coal ash pond runoff water goes into a settling pond that then flows into Lake Juliette.
"Use your own judgement. We're trying to provide as much information as possible, but we don't know if it's safe to eat the fish. We may look into that later, but right now, we're focused on what we're finding in people's wells," says Sams.
With Plant Scherer so close by the lake, Dupree doesn't want to take any chances.
He says, "They can't tell me that at some point in time, they haven't had overflow, massive rains come through like we've had lately, that's actually washed any of those contaminants into the lake."
Sams says the Riverkeepers haven't tested fish or Lake Juliette directly, but they have surface water samples showing contamination coming out of the settling pond.
He emphasized that, at this time, he isn't in a position to tell people not to eat the fish.
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