Friday, May 3, 2002
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Friday, May 3, 2002 |
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Mayor wants to make sure Union City has water needs covered By JANET
McGREGOR
At the conclusion of the recent Union City Council meeting, Mayor Ralph Moore took the opportunity to voice his concerns regarding Union City's status in the South Fulton Municipal Water Authority. Union City, Fairburn and Palmetto formed a coalition in April of 2000 to address water and sewage issues in the tri-city area. The authority is comprised of two appointed members from each city and one at-large member appointed by the State Legislature. Part of the mission of the authority is to provide and plan for adequate wastewater treatment to address future needs. Prior to the advent of the authority, Union City had been independently planning to ensure its citizens would not run into trouble with wastewater disposal or incur excessive charges in paying for the treatment of the effluence. In 1996 state officials informed the city they could no longer turn wastewater into the creek that ran beside the plant they had operated since 1969 and that they must go to the land application system. Unfortunately, although they had adequate land, it would not "perk" and they had to abandon the plant. The city then entered into its current agreement with Fulton County to handle its wastewater at their Camp Creek facility. Union City pays $1.37 per 1,000 gallons, up to 1.5 million gallons per day. If they exceed the 1.5 mgp, the cost more than doubles to $3.33 per 1,000 gallons. While Union City has not yet exceeded the 1.5 mgp, according to Charles Corbin, city engineer, "a lot of construction will close that gap." Fulton County is treating approximately 1.3 mpg per day for Union City. With the advent of the new authority in 2000, Union City had asked the group to looking into options that would serve the three-city region. Taking into consideration information provided from the authority and Fulton County, Union City officials had narrowed their options for future wastewater treatment to three. They could, said Sonja Carter, Union City City Administrator, build their own plant, chose to buy into or purchase additional treatment from Fulton County or the authority can build a treatment center to serve all three cities on the west side of I-85 to accommodate future development. Mayor Moore and the council had been focused on building their own plant as potentially the best way to deal with short-term needs. According to the mayor, they were within two weeks of making a final decision - and they were unaware of another option open to the City which could potentially save a "lot of money." The mayor had received information just prior to the City Council meeting regarding a potential expansion of a plant being built by Fairburn. He was also informed that Fairburn was considering entering an agreement with Palmetto to treat their overflow effluence. If Union City could utilize the facility for overflow above the current 1.5 mpg going to Camp Creek, the city would not need to build its own facility and could save a considerable amount in overflow charges. "It has come to my attention that we now have the ability to possibly gain access to the City of Fairburn's 2 million gallon capacity sewer treatment facility. I'm concerned that this was not presented to the board a lot earlier by Fairburn," Moore said. "We should have been in on the early planning stages. Plans don't happen overnight," Moore continued. "I'm concerned that we're not being considered as an equal part of this team." In a subsequent conversation with Charles Corbin, who serves as a consultant to the authority and city engineer for Union City and Fairburn and assistant engineer for Palmetto, he stated he should have done a better job of keeping the mayor and council informed.
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