Oil seeps into Chattahoochee after fire erupts at site

SMYRNA - As nearly 200 gallons of oil spilled into the Chattahoochee River late Thursday, an explosion and fire erupted at a Cobb County power plant best known for its towering smokestack. <br> <br> About 5,500 gallons of oil seeped from a failed transformer in a switchyard around 8:30 p.m. and caught fire at the Plant McDonough-Atkinson on South Cobb Drive in Smyrna. <br> <br> Georgia Power workers erected a boom in the river to block the oil flow and used absorption pads to soak up the spill. The blaze was under control by 9:40 p.m., according to the Cobb County Fire Department. <br> <br> No injuries were reported. <br> <br> The spill did not pose an environmental hazard, company spokesman Tal Wright said. The oil inside the transformers is used as a coolant, he said. <br> <br> The spill was expected to be cleared from the river Friday. Department of Natural Resources officials also were expected to inspect cleanup results. <br> <br> ``The key question is whether the oil contained PCB, and it doesn&#39;t,&#39;&#39; Wright said. ``In the early &#39;90s, we replaced the oil in the transformers with non-PCB oil.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Power to the switchyard where the transformer was located was turned off when the fire started. Customers in metro Atlanta and North Georgia were not affected. <br> <br> Wright said the switchyard was ``retired for some time&#39;&#39; and was used only to provide lighting to the plant building. <br> <br> The Georgia Power Co. plant was built as a coal-burning plant in 1964 and converted to oil and gas in the mid-&#39;70s. The plant is best known for its 834-foot smokestack, which has become a local landmark. <br> <br> In June 1999 three men died at the plant when cleaning fluid being used on equipment exploded.