Wednesday, September 20, 2000
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Wednesday, September 20, 2000 |
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Fayette faces smelly problem By DAVE HAMRICK Fayette County's Water Committee has alerted county commissioners to a coming quandary what to do with about 54,000 gallons a month of nasty, smelly septage. According to Jim Mallett, Fayette County's consultant and a member of the Water Committee, "This stuff is really nasty. It's anaerobic; in other words no oxygen gets into it, and it has a bad odor." Septage is the stuff that comes out of your septic tank, and disposing of it is no simple matter. The committee has passed along an issue paper on septage that was developed by the county's Environmental Committee. Mallett put a price tag of about $1 million on one possible solution, building a treatment plant somewhere in Fayette County to handle the effluent. Such a plant would have to be enclosed to cut down on the odor, he said, and before the liquid septage could be chemically treated, it would have to be biologically treated by adding oxygen to it. "Then you have the sludge to deal with," he said. Committee members are considering such options because Clayton County's W. B. Casey sewer plant, which currently takes in Fayette's septage for a fee, has put the county on notice that it will some day have to stop taking out-of-county septage. Private companies that pump out septic tanks take the effluent to the Casey plant. "They are getting concerned about the amount that is coming in," said water system director Tony Parrott, adding that he was told "they didn't intend to upgrade their water reclamation facility to accommodate regional growth in Fayette County at the expense of their customers or their citizens." Water Committee clerk Lisa Gillis contacted other surrounding counties, and none of them take out-of-county septage at their treatment facilities, according to committee member Chris Venice. Committee member Dr. George Patton suggested that one solution might be to pay Clayton County to upgrade its system to handle Fayette's future volume. "I don't know of anything that would rule that out," said committee Chairman Glen Gosa. Vice Chairman Chuck Watkins suggested another possibility, paying Fayetteville or Peachtree City to treat county septage. "I wonder if their plants are large enough," said Patton. The county could take the approach of leaving the matter to the private septage companies to figure out, said County Attorney Bill McNally, but he added, "There may be no place for the folks hauling it out of here to put it." In its issue paper, the committee points out that illegal dumping of septage has happened in the past and could happen again if there's no legal dumping place available. The committee voted unanimously to add Mallett's information on building a treatment plant to the issue paper and discuss it again at its Sept. 27 meeting. TheEnvironmental Committee's recommendation is that the county provide a pretreatment facility and pursue a joint venture with some other public sewer system for disposal of the pretreated effluent. Building the pretreatment facility could be paid for by charging a fee of $1 a month to homeowners. The county also expects that new federal regulations will require building a treatment facility for storm water, and homeowners also may be charged a "utility" fee to pay for that, the committee's position paper says. Ga. drought problems persist, but Fayette's still fine By DAVE HAMRICK dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com
Recent rains have not washed away the drought conditions that plague north Georgia water systems, said Tony Parrott, Fayette's water system director. But Fayette continues to be in better shape than its neighbors, he added. "Twenty-six counties have 30 days or less [supply of raw water in their reservoirs]," Parrott told the county Water Committee during a recent meeting. "The Newnan reservoir has dropped 40 percent, and with a 13-million-gallon [per day] capacity, they're hitting 14 million some days. "Coweta County is hoping to purchase water from us next year or they're going to be in trouble," he added. By contrast, Parrott told The Citizen, "If it didn't rain this winter, we would be all right until summer." Fayette's reservoirs were full this spring, and full reservoirs give the county a one-year supply of raw water, he said. "Next spring if they're full, we've got another year," he said. The county can produce about 14 million gallons a day of treated water currently, and sold an average of almost 11 mgd in August, according to the system's monthly production report. Demand reached as high as just under 14 million gallons on the peak day of Aug. 14, the report states. The biggest problem Fayette has faced during the drought thus far, Parrott said, is actually caused by the state-imposed water restriction that allows outside watering only between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. Residents apparently turn their sprinklers on around 6 a.m. and leave for work, then phone home just at 10 a.m. to instruct spouses or children to turn them off, he said. On one particular day, the water tank on Ga. Highway 92 dropped down to a three-foot level just before 10 a.m., then immediately began to fill back up. Fayette would prefer to continue the odd-even water restrictions with no restriction as to time of day, he said, but must follow the state edict. Meanwhile, most local residents are complying with the restrictions, and that helps keep local supplies in good shape, he told the Water Committee. "We've been lucky," he said. "There have been very few people we've had to talk to." No fines have been issued, he said, and the most drastic action the water system has taken has been to turn off service to a few sprinkler systems. Residents with automatic sprinklers can help by shutting them off on days that it rains, he added. Parrott said it's hoped that winter rains will refill the county's reservoirs by next spring and supplies of raw water will remain strong. As for treated water, the county's new water treatment plant on Antioch Road south of Fayetteville is expected to go on-line next May, just in time for the usual summer crunch. It will add six million gallons a day to the county's ability to provide treated water. And, thinking ahead, the water system is installing pumps and lines large enough to bring nine mgd of raw water from the Horton Creek Reservoir to the plant in the future. The plant is designed for easy expansion to that capacity.
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