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Extra $174K on dredge project would avoid need to drain Lake Peachtree By JOHN MUNFORD
It will cost an extra $174,000 to dredge Lake Peachtree without having to drain the water level to the bottom, but by doing so the county would avoid losing the lake's 4.5 million gallon a day water supply. County water officials are debating whether the extra cost would be worth it. The dredging project which involves excavation of approximately 22,000 cubic yards of silt from five different locations in Lake Peachtree is expected to start sometime in April. County officials must decide whether to go the less expensive route and drain the lake to remove the silt at a cost of $458,000, or pay $632,000 so a barge can remove the silt without lowering the lake level significantly. "I'd hate to lose 4.5 million gallons of raw water a day," Fayette County Water System director Tony Parrott told the county's water committee Wednesday morning. County consulting engineer Jim Mallett agreed. "From my stance, I'd rather have water to treat if we have another drought," Mallett said. There is plenty of money to absorb the extra cost because funds have been set aside in a separate account for the dredging program, Parrott said. He added that the extra $174,000 will be well spent since it would allow the county to continue using the 4.5 million gallons a day coming from the reservoir. Water Committee chairman Chuck Watkins said he was leaning toward recommending the lower bid to the county commission, which would involve draining the lake almost entirely. But county administrator Chris Cofty suggested that Peachtree City officials should be asked to fund the difference since keeping the lake levels up would benefit the city, which owns the lake. The County Commission will have the final say-so on which bid is selected. Two other bids were also submitted for the project but they came in substantially higher than the two under consideration. The county is required to dredge the lake periodically under an agreement with the city which allows Lake Peachtree to be used by the county as a reservoir for drinking water. The project will last up to 150 days, 90 of which are targeted for excavation of the silt, which must then be dried out before it is hauled off in trucks for disposal. Mallett said if the lake is drained, some water should be left in the lake to perhaps save the fish who call Lake Peachtree home. Watkins said he would rather the county wait until July or later to perform the dredging project since an April startup "when everybody wants to get outside and turn their water on." The committee was told the bids are technically valid for only 30 days after they were opened Tuesday. Watkins admitted that the last time the county had the lake dredged in 1986, there were some problems, but he felt $174,000 was "a lot of money." "We're not going to be put in that bad of a situation by having this lake out of service," Watkins said. Watkins also said the water system can buy more water from the city of Atlanta to make up the difference when needed, but Parrott pointed out that it's more expensive to buy the water than for the water system to treat its own water. If the lake is drained, the county may have to enact more water restrictions to help conserve water until the project ends, Parrott said. The committee discussed the matter at a meeting last week but tabled it so Mallett could check the references on the contractors who bid on the work.
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