Fayette County's water department hopes to have an additional six million gallons of water flowing daily into south Fayette homes soon.

County commissioners will consider bids for the South Fayette Water Treatment Plant during its business meeting tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex, 140 Stonewall Ave., Fayetteville.

Low bidder is Bates Engineers Inc., at $12.34 million.

Construction is slated to begin this summer next to Woolsey Creek Baptist Church on Antioch Road and take approximately two years to complete.

State authorities have approved withdrawal of up to nine million gallons a day from the county's new Lake Horton reservoir, but initial plans are to take only six mgd for now.

The plant will treat the water and store it in a new two million-gallon tank on Goza Road behind a new subdivision named Horseman's Run.

Commissioners recently approved purchase of the tank site with construction scheduled for 2003.

The county water system currently can provide about 13.5 mgd from its Crosstown Water Treatment Plant, plus 800,000 gallons from wells. The county has a contract to buy up to six mgd from the Atlanta water system.

The maximum that the county system can produce is expected to be 30 mgd, once the Lake Horton plant is at capacity and a new Lake McIntosh reservoir is in place in about five years. If county residents need more than that, it will have to be bought from the city of Atlanta.

Construction of a subdivision-style entrance for the plant already has been completed.

"Because it's in the middle of a residential area, the plant will be built to look fairly residential," said Parrott.