Wednesday, June 19, 2002
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Wednesday, June 19, 2002 |
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Chase urges stronger ordinances at public meeting discussing water
By MICHAEL
BOYLAN
The population of metro Atlanta continues to grow and the sources of water are finite, according to officials discussing water issues at a recent public hearing in Fayetteville. Last Wednesday, the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (MNGWPD) held a public meeting at the Stonewall Administrative Complex to present model ordinances relating to water, stormwater and wastewater management. There are 16 counties that fall under what is defined as the district. Fayette County is part of the Flint River Basin, as is a small portion of Coweta County and South Fulton county. Coweta and South Fulton are also part of the Chattahoochee River Basin. The two presenters at the meeting were Eric Olson, an employee of Brown and Caldwell, an environmental engineering firm, and Steve Hobner, a water engineer working for the Atlanta Regional Commission. Olson discussed the short term wastewater capacity plan and Hobner discussed the model stormwater ordinance. Both men told those at the meeting that the goal of the MNGWPD was to identify problems both short term and long term within the district and to identify options for the local governments to protect and enhance water quality. Olson told the small crowd at the meeting that there are six wastewater treatment facilities in the Flint River Basin and that none of these facilities are projecting short term capacity issues. However, by 2008 they will be required to have an additional capacity of 8.5 million gallons per day. Of the six facilities, four are in Fayette County. One is owned and operated by the city of Fayetteville, the Whitewater Creek WPCP, while the other three are owned and operated by Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority; the Flat Creek WPCP, the Line Creek WPCP and the Rockaway WPCP. Peachtree City WASA is planning to upgrade and expand its system to meet projected build out flow conditions of six million gallons per day. To do this it will expand Rockaway WPCP from two million gallons per day to four million gallons per day, upgrade Line Creek WPCP to reuse quality and decommission Flat Creek WPCP. Flows from Flat Creek will be diverted to expand Rockaway WPCP. Flat Creek has a significant amount of industrial waste flow and Rockaway has more of a domestic waste flow. Some of the operational problems that Flat creek experiences from time to time will no longer be a problem. Once Line Creek's upgrades are complete, 0.9 million gallons per day will be discharged back to the Flat Creek discharge point. This will be done to maintain the environment of Flat Creek. There are two facilities operating in Coweta County the Shenandoah WPCP, operated by the Coweta County Water and Sewer Department, and the Senoia WPCP, operated by the city of Senoia. Senoia's facility will be expanded to 0.5 million gallons per day by 2003, while Shenandoah will expand to 1.5 million gallons per day by 2005. While Coweta and Fayette are among several counties in the district that already have plans in place, some counties like Forsyth have a need for wastewater service but have no facilities of their own in place. The MNGWPD's plan was for every county to get on the same page. Hobner's presentation on stormwater included six model ordinance drafts. Stormwater runoff is rainwater that runs off land and enters rivers, streams and lakes. When development occurs, vegetation and topsoil are cleared, impervious surfaces are laid down and stormwater doesn't go into the ground. Fayette County is one of the only places in the district that has a sizable groundwater supply. Ninety-eight percent of the water in the district comes from supply surfaces. Each of the model ordinances being drafted deal with stormwater management and pollution control. The first ordinance is for post-development stormwater management for new development and redevelopment, while the second ordinance is for stream buffer protection and the third ordinance is for flood plain management. The remaining three ordinances are for conservation subdivision and open space development, illicit discharge and illegal connection and litter control. Local governments will be asked to adopt these ordinances in their final form or something at least as effective. Much like the wastewater ordinances, many local governments may already have appropriate ordinances on the books. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division will be the group responsible for enforcement of these ordinances and that is where Dennis Chase, a former fish and wildlife biologist for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Department, has a problem. Chase addressed the meeting after the presentation as a member of the Flint River Advisory Council. He stated that these ordinances were only a beginning and featured too many weaknesses. "This is a patchwork system," Chase said. "Some of these ordinances are good and some are bad." While Chase said that Fayette County may be doing well to protect the quality and the quantity of the water, other counties whose water may be entering the county are not doing as well. Chase also charged that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has not done a great job of enforcing the Clean Air and Water Act for the past 25 years and questioned whether it would do any better with enforcing these ordinances. Chase concluded by saying that stronger ordinances should be adopted and that monitoring and enforcement must be done, otherwise the MNGWPD's work over the past year has been a waste of time.
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