SMYRNA, Ga. -- After 2,300 gallons of carburetor cleaner leaked from a tanker and flowed into a residential creek Saturday, officials say they've made significant progress in their cleanup efforts.
Officials with Apollo Technologies, the company responsible for the contamination, gave an update on the progress of the cleanup on Tuesday.
The company said that filling operations began Tuesday morning with the goal of emptying all mixing tanks. An engineering evaluation of the building structure began on Monday.
An engineering evaluation of the mixing tanks began on Tuesday and is expected to take several days.
Now, investigators are turning their attention to the timeline of when that leak occurred and when it was reported.
As of Monday, cleanup crews had collected 200,000 gallons of carburetor cleaner from the unnamed creek using six vacuum tankers and a crew of about a dozen workers. Carburetor cleaner is one of the company's industrial, auto and hardware products. The company has not released the ingredients used in the cleaner that spilled.
While the water is now running noticeably clearer, neighbors present at the news conference still demanded answers, mostly about the timeline of when the spill first happened to its reporting.
Employees with the chemical plant first alerted authorities to the leak Saturday around 9 a.m., though neighbors said they noticed the contamination much earlier -- around 2 a.m.
Using surveillance video, investigators were able to determine that the leak possibly began around 7:30 Friday night. Chief Operating Officer for Apollo Geoff Laude said video shows liquid flowing from one of the tanks in the corner of a holding room around that time. The tank in question has been taken out of service permanently, and production at their Smyrna plant has been suspended.
PHOTOS: Officials investigating substance found local creek
Laude said they're working with several government agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources, to determine how that leaking chemical made it's way into the creek.
Neighbors say the saw an employee hose the cleaner down a storm drain that empties into the creek. Laude said that detail is part of their investigation.
Environmental agencies are still on still of the creek conduction soil, water and air samples. Laude said it will be up to the EPA to determine when the creek is back to normal and safe.
"We will do absolutely whatever it takes and devote whatever resources to ensure that this never happens again," he said. "That's our promise."
But even with the progress, neighbors are still complaining about the smell and what the spill has done to the wildlife. Dana McPherson said the odor is giving her a headache.
"Even with the windows closed, we can smell it inside with the air conditioners on," he said. "The little frogs and salamanders, the more you look, the more you see. All the wildlife is dead."
