By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Drought has forced the city of Fayetteville to shut down its water plant again.

“If the water's not there, the water's not there,” said Rick Eastin, city water system director.

The city takes its raw water from Whitewater Creek just south of Ga. Highway 54. The plant was shut down due to low water flow last summer, and the same conditions have returned, said Eastin.

A combination of drought and leaks in the dam have emptied Lake Bennett, just north of the city's intake, and owners are currently working to repair the dam. But Eastin said the dam repairs have nothing to do with the city's problem. Pumps are taking creek water from north of the dam and putting it back in south of the dam.

It's the lack of water flow in the creek itself that has forced the shutdown.

“We're required by law to release two million gallons a day for downstream users,” Eastin said. “Anything above that, we can withdraw. But right now there's only about one million gallons a day flowing down the creek. There's nothing we can do about that.”

Eastin said even though no water was spilling over the top of the dam at Lake Bennett before the lake was emptied, city measuring instruments showed five million gallons a day flowing past the water intake, proving that a leaking dam was causing the lake to empty, not any problems upstream.

Once the lake emptied out, the flow went away, Eastin said.

“It's just dry,” he said.

Until there's more water available, Fayetteville will buy water for its residents from the Fayette County Water System, which has ample supply for now, according to director Tony Parrott.

Following last year's drought, Fayetteville had to adjust its budget upward by about $100,000 to account for the difference in cost of producing its own water versus buying it from Fayette.

How much this year's drought will cost remains to be seen.