A monitoring crew doing a routine inspection of local creeks Monday morning noticed sewage leaking into Slaughterhouse Creek, a tributary of Lake Lanier.

Brian Wiley, environmental monitoring coordinator for Gainesville Public Utilities, said the spill was discovered at about 10 a.m. on Brandon Place, off Thompson Bridge Road.

A city utilities crew found a crack in a six-inch sewer line above a concrete pillar. "It was an older line, and the pillars had settled a bit over time," Wiley said. "Also, a fairly large grease clog was found in the line."

The city vacuumed up about 1,500 gallons of wastewater, but an estimated 200 gallons got into the creek.

Wiley said the damaged section of line was replaced. As required by law, warning signs were placed near the creek, and Hall County Environmental Health and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division were notified.

"We caught (the spill) before it became a major problem," Wiley said.