By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@thecitizennews.com

One solution to Peachtree City’s increasing sewer needs might also help conserve water... in a major way.

The Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority plans to use a program called urban reuse that would allow for treated sewage to be used for irrigation on golf courses. That, in turn, would allow the golf courses to stop pulling water from the creeks they are using to feed their irrigation systems currently.
The scenario could save over a million gallons of water per day, said Susan Johnson, operations manager at WASA.

Extra steps would be taken to treat the water before it is pumped to the golf courses, Johnson said.

Currently, WASA has plans to send the specially treated water to the Planterra and Braelinn golf courses. Using the “recycled” water from the sewer system would keep those courses from pulling water from Line Creek and Flat Creek.

The golf courses would get approximately 1.1 million gallons per day of the recycled water from WASA. WASA doesn’t plan to charge for the service, Turner said.

The plan is supported by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, which is promoting the implementation of other urban reuse programs throughout the state, Turner said. EPD has established rules for operating such programs and the water likely will be tested more stringently than it currently is, Turner added.

The process couldn’t be used on the Flat Creek golf course because of difficulties in transporting the water, said WASA general manager Larry Turner.

To treat the sewage discharge so it can be used to irrigate the golf courses, WASA will add a sand filter system and more chlorination equipment. The authority also might have to lay some piping down to get it to the courses.

A storage pond also would be necessary for rainy days when irrigation would not be needed, Turner said.

Anyone with questions about the process is invited to phone WASA at 770-487-7993. Turner wants to address anyone’s concerns before the permitting process begins so the plans aren’t slowed down, he said.

Several public hearings about the plan also will be conducted in the future, Turner said.

“We’ll meet with any civic organization or homeowners association to talk about it,” Turner said.

The urban reuse water would create a “win-win” situation, because it helps the city handle increased sewer needs and helps conserve water, Turner said.

“It gives them a more reliable source of irrigation water,” Turner said. The urban reuse method has been used on golf courses in Florida since the 1960s, he added.

If the city decides to annex the West Village area, that would create a need for more sewer services of approximately a half million gallons per day, depending on the number of residences involved, Turner said.

In addition to using the urban reuse strategy, WASA plans to expand the Rockaway Sewage Treatment Plant from a two million-gallon-per-day capacity to four mgd. WASA also plans to shut down its Flat Creek facility, but keep the discharge permit on Flat Creek so it can still pump effluent — the treated sewage — into those waters from the Line Creek Treatment Plant.
The request to keep treated sewage flowing into Flat Creek has come from environmental supporters, who want the water to keep supporting wetlands, Turner said.

“If we didn’t discharge into Flat Creek, it would just about dry up,” Turner said.

The shutdown of the Flat Creek facility couldn’t occur for at least two and a half years, Turner calculated.