Wednesday, September 3, 2003
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Wednesday, September 3, 2003 |
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F'ville eyes doubling of sewer plant capacity By JOHN MUNFORD
The Fayetteville City Council will consider several proposals to increase the city's wastewater treatment capacity at a special called meeting Thursday at 5:30 p.m. City officials are proposing refurbishing the city's mothballed sewage treatment plant, which was built 23 years ago, to double the city's current capacity from 2.5 million gallons a day to 5 million gallons a day. Currently, the city is using roughly 2.2 million gallons a day of its 2.5 million gallon per day state-allotted capacity, said City Manager Joe Morton. "We don't have any wiggle room," Morton said, adding that an expansion would allow the city to better maintain its current plant and better handle large rain events which can dramatically increase the amount of water that needs to be treated. It will cost an estimated $4.41 million to refurbish the old sewer plant so it can be reactivated at its old capacity of 1.25 million gallons a day, Morton said. But for an extra $1.35 million, the capacity of that plant can be doubled to 2.5 million gallons a day, which would be more economical, Morton added. The extra 1.25 million gallons a day works out to a cost of just over a dollar per gallon, while it can cost up to $4.92 per gallon to build a new sewage treatment plant from scratch, Morton said. The expansion will likely be paid for with revenue bonds, which do not require a referendum for approval since they are backed by revenues and assets of the city's water and sewer system, Morton said. The city has used revenue bonds for almost all of its capital improvements to the sewer system, Morton added. The city has always planned to increase its sewer capacity by refurbishing the older sewage treatment plant, Morton noted. When the new wastewater treatment plant opened in 1991, the city projected it would need 3.75 million gallons a day when it reached build-out status with an estimated population of 23,000 in 2013 or 2014. But city officials are looking now at needing between 3.65 and 4 million gallons a day at build-out, Morton said. "I don't see us using much more than 4 million gallons a day," Morton said. That figure was reached by taking into account property currently in the city and not property that might be annexed in the future, Morton added. "We did not take into account any areas outside the city," Morton said. "We basically covered the needs of our current boundaries." The extra capacity will help by allowing the tanks at the current sewer plant to be serviced, which hasn't been done since the plant opened in 1991, Morton added. The extra capacity will also help during periods of heavy rain when the system receives a lot of extra water to treat before releasing it into Whitewater Creek, Morton added. He also noted that the expansion will help the city meet Georgia's sewer treatment regulations as they get more stringent in the future. Morton said a possible expansion of the sewer plant has been considered by the council for the past few years during its annual retreat.
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