Friday, November 15, 2002

South Fulton WASA negotiations successful

By JANET MCGREGOR
snippets@bellsouth.net

The South Fulton Municipal Regional Water and Sewage Authority once again appears to be on-track. A flap over differing views regarding the authority's scope had threatened the accord.

A revised written operating agreement, the result of recent re-negotiations, was presented to the tri-city board by attorneys on Tuesday night.

The contents of the agreement were not discussed during the meeting. Members of the authority opted to take copies to their respective councils for approval. The proposal will be finalized at the next Authority meeting on December 10th.

Charles Corbin, Keck & Woods, updated Authority members on the status of the 404 permit process. 404 refers to section 404 of the Clean Water Act which established a program to regulate the discharge of dredged and fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands.

Applicants must show they have taken steps to "avoid wetland impacts where practicable, minimize potential impacts to wetlands, provided compensation for any remaining, unavoidable impacts through activities to restore or create wetlands."

Representatives from the Corp of Engineers, the EPD, EPA and others did an on-site walk-through of the proposed reservoir site. Corbin said they seemed to "generally be in favor" of the project. The application process should be completed with in 3 to 4 weeks.

In the October meeting Ecological Solutions and Keck & Wood, Inc., project consultants, were charged with developing a presentation suitable for public meetings.

Andy Whorton, Ecological Solutions, presented the authority and the sparse audience a review of the preliminary overview. Authority members were pleased with the presentation and requested that a similar presentation be given to the three city's Council. The completed presentation will be made available to the public via Fairburn and Union City's websites and other distributable media.

Currently Union City and Fairburn purchase wholesale water from Atlanta. Palmetto has two reservoirs and a water treat
ment plant which supplies a maximum treatment of 0.5 mgd (million gallons per day). Palmetto depends on Atlanta as a backup. Current demand for water in Union City is approximately 1.3 mgd, the City of Palmetto uses roughly 0.4 mgd and Fairburn consumes 0.6 mgd, a cumulative need of 2.2 mgd.

Somewhat conservative projections for the year 2050 project that the cumulative need for the 3 cities to be 8.1 mgd. Peak usage could rise as high as 11.2 mgd.

The projected increase for water combined with the lack of reliability from Atlanta's ailing water system and a projected shortage for the Fulton County region were cited as some of the factors spurring the authority to action.

A number of options were considered by the authority and consultants prior to settling on the need for an on-line reservoir.

While some of the alternatives, such as water conservation, will be incorporated into the water plan, none were feasible to meet the needs of the growing region.

Options considered and rejected include continues dependence on Atlanta, expansion of Palmetto's reservoirs, river or stream intake and groundwater.

The reservoir would satisfy water quality concerns, would not conflict with South Fulton's 2015 Land Use Plan, would have low operation costs as compared to off-line storage and would meet the yield requirements.

The presentation continued on to explain the process of choosing the best site for the reservoir. The goals were to find a drainage basin adequate to supply water to meet projected needs, to minimize or avoid environmental impacts to "maximum extent practicable," and to have minimum displacement to landowners.

Additionally, economic factors and available land and proximity to the tri-city service area were considered.

Camp Creek, Deep/Line Creeks, Tuggle Creek, Pea Creek, White Oak Creek, Cedar Creek and three sites on Bear Creek were studied.

Ultimately a 530 acre site on Bear Creek was chosen as the preferred alternative. The authority expects a yield of 13 mgd from the 310-acre "full pool"-maximum reservoir elevation for storing water for the project.

Local benefits for the project included a dependable yield for the next 50 years, additional
greenspace, minimum displacement and a local water supply.

Mayor Ralph Moore, Union City, noted it was not easy to discuss projects like this one with the general population due to the technical nature of the information and expressed his appreciation for their work. It was requested that the presentation be made into a video allowing for questions and comments at the end.