Wednesday, November 21, 2001
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Wednesday, November 21, 2001 |
PTC sewer system reports copper violations at aging Flat Creek plantBy JOHN
MUNFORD
The Peachtree City Water and Sewer Authority has violated its permit limitations for the discharge of copper at its aging Flat Creek treatment plant for three consecutive months. WASA General Manager Larry Turner said the limit on copper is .27 parts per million, but the violations are of .01 parts per million, a small amount. Nevertheless, the authority will pay a fine of $1,000 per month for the violations as part of its consent order with the EPD for past violations. Operations Manager Susan Johnson said at WASA's meeting Monday that the Flat Creek facility uses "technology that is 30 years old". The Flat Creek plant will be closed in the near future as WASA undertakes a $15 million expansion of the sewer system to raise the amount of sewage treatment capacity to 6 million gallons per day. Turner added that the sewer system expansion will allow the industrial waste to be handled more easily at the authority's other plants. Authority member Steve Bradley inquired whether fines could be levied by WASA against whatever business is causing the copper violation. It was determined that fines could be used, however in this case it would be difficult to prove which entity was the violator, according to WASA staff. However, Photocircuits has recently changed its pretreatment process that was designed to reduce the amount of copper it discharges with its industrial waste that is accepted for further treatment by WASA, according to Johnson. But other entities have copper register in their discharge, Turner said.
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