Wednesday, October 25, 2000

By AMY RILEY
One Citizen's Perspective

If you happen to be driving in the Lake Kedron area of Peachtree City, you'll probably notice that the lake is shrinking. The water level is way down. The outer perimeters of the lake have been transformed into marshlands.

Why, you might wonder, when summer is over, water usage is down, and we've had some rain, does it look like the lake is even lower than it was in the peak summer heat?

Because it is and, because the receding water level has been a gradual process, you may not have noticed until recently when it became hard to miss. You may ask yourself, and others have, what you can do to help solve the problem.

The "problem," it turns out, is multifaceted. Part of the problem is the drought, part of the problem is a growth rate that is outpacing our infrastructure, and part of the problem may rest at the decision-making level. Are our area reservoirs being fairly drawn down relative to their capacity to recoup their net water level losses?

Here are a few facts about the Fayette County water system. We have six surface water sources in the Fayette County water system: Lake Kedron, Lake Peachtree, Lake Horton, Line Creek, the Flint River, and Starr's Millpond. We have five well water sources which are all in the crystalline aquifer. In addition, we purchase water sources from the city of Atlanta, the city of Fayetteville, and the Clayton County Water Authority. According to the water system's Annual Water Quality Report, we process "an average of 7,700,000 gallons per day at the water plant on Crosstown Road."

To address the future needs of Fayette county, "the six million gallon a day South Fayette Water Treatment Plan is under construction," which will eventually produce 18 million gallons a day. A new two million gallon water tank will be built. The biggest plan in the works is the 650-acre Lake McIntosh Reservoir in the western portion of Fayette County. The water system has purchased the site and has a consultant preparing the "404 permit" application which is required by the state to construct the reservoir.

But what's happening now? Lake Horton, Starr's Mill pond, and Lake Kedron are down because of a three-year drought. Lake Kedron is down a lot 40 percent since April 1 of this year, according to Tony Parrott, director of the Fayette County Water System.

Lake Peachtree, which is owned by Peachtree City, is also a county water reservoir but maintains its current mean water level by virtue of a 50-year contract between the city and the county. Here's how it works.

Lake Kedron has no pump station of its own (by design?), so up to 4 million gallons a day are released into Lake Peachtree to be drawn off at the Lake Peachtree pump station. According to the 50-year Lake Peachtree Water Level Agreement, updated and reinstituted in 1984, "Lake Peachtree may only be drawn down from its current mean level at such time as the upper reservoir (Lake Kedron) has been drawn down to its silt pool level and the County Commission has declared a water emergency." Lake Horton draws water up to a permitted level off of the Flint River, so when it gets low, it can be partially replenished, but it is still down by 6 feet. Lake Peachtree is kept full by Lake Kedron, Flat Creek, and sometimes Line Creek. Starr's Mill pond and Lake Kedron are supplied by creeks and have a harder time recouping their supply in a drought.

Some residents have concerns. Theresa Basilone believes that if "average citizens could see the devastation" to the ecosystem around the lakes, they would work harder to conserve water and lobby for slowed growth. Mrs. Basilone, who recently flew over the Fayette County area with her husband Joe to take a look at area lakes, was appalled by what she saw. "It [Lake Kedron] used to be eye enhancing. Now it's a black eye," she laments.

Tom O'Connell, a past president of Smokerise Plantation Homeowner's Association, raised these same questions several years back, but soon realized he was fighting a losing battle.

"The water system was within its rights to drain down the lake. There was nothing we could do," reports Mr. O'Connell. Mr. O'Connell stresses that residents around Lake Kedron are not seeking special treatment. They simply want equal treatment. If Lake Kedron is taking a bigger hit than other area reservoirs, it would be nice if someone could help to address that.

The good news is that usage is down some. A third less water was drawn off of Lake Kedron in the week of Oct. 7-13 than was drawn off the week of July 7-13, but there is still way more going out than is coming back in.

Those of you who have lived here a while will remember, but those new to the area may find it interesting to note that the last time Lake Kedron was terribly low, it was residual rain from a Gulf Coast hurricane that hovered in the metro Atlanta area for several days that replenished the lake. The odds of that happening again are...not very good.

[Your comments are welcome: ARileyFreePress@aol.com.]

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