Friday, Mar. 11, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | Citys sewer capacity wont be enoughBy JOHN THOMPSON Even though many Senoia residents are still not hooked up to the citys new sewer system, the Senoia City Council is trying to figure out the best way to expand the systems capacity. During a Monday night worksession with city engineer Ben Turnipseed, city officials learned the system wont be able to handle the future needs of its residents. Turnipseed said the city currently has just over 1,000 acres of undeveloped land within its current city limits. If all that area is developed, Turnipseed said the city would need 425,000 gallons of capacity. The current systems capacity is 490,000 gallons a day, so the city is looking at running out of capacity probably within the next eight to 10 years, he added. At an earlier meeting this year, the city engineer said the city should consider one of four options to increase the capacity of its current plant. One option would have the city pumping its excess capacity to Peachtree City, but Turnipseed said that would cost more than $500,000 a year in operating costs. His second option would be to upgrade the existing lagoon at the current plant so it could handle more than 1 million gallons per day. But the city would need 173 acres adjacent to the current plant to expand the land applications system. The third option is building a new plant that would discharge the treated water into either Keg Creek or Line Creek. Finally, the city could choose to upgrade the existing and retrofit it for resuseable treated water that could be used for watering purposes. Turnipseed recommended the city pursue the third option and move towards getting the necessary permits since the entire process could take five years. The engineer also added the city would not be eligible for loans to expand the plant since the citys per capita income has grown so much in the last decade. The City Council said they would study the figures and recommendations and decide which option they wanted to choose at a later date. |
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