Friday, July 16, 1999
Friday, July 16, 1999 |
By
MONROE ROARK
Members of the Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority and City Council met for a few minutes Monday afternoon in a special session, during which they mostly assured one another that all were on the same page regarding the safety of the city's water system. WASA officials discussed details concerning the two recent spills into Lake Peachtree, but also emphasized the continuous work being done to bring the system up to where it should be since its purchase from Georgia Utilities. Some of the 150-mile sewer system, the size of which is said to have been underestimated some 20 percent by Georgia Utilities, dates back 30 years with little or no attention being paid to it, according to WASA Chairman John Gronner. New equipment is being implemented this month that will help keep an eye on the entire system and spot potential problems. A television system that will take pictures of the system is coming online to complement a new vacuum truck acquired this spring. Whereas recent responses to spills have been reactive, Gronner said, new advances in technology such as this will allow a more proactive response. The most recent spill was caused by a clog due to the accumulation of roots, along with a manhole that was too shallow, according to WASA board members and general manager Larry Turner. The root problem is systemic of what exists throughout the system, Gronner said, and with most of the lines 25 feet below the ground, getting to every trouble spot is not an easy task. Once the new TV equipment is in place, the goal is to photograph the entire sewer system every three years — roughly one mile per week, Turner said. WASA staffers are working right now inspecting the lines and gathering data for regular maintenance in the future, he added. Mayor Pro Tempore Annie McMenamin said that measures such as these will improve the system and ease the concerns of citizens such as those she has been hearing from in recent weeks. Saying that her top concern is the safety of the citizens, McMenamin noted that a perception exists throughout the community that because the second spill was so soon after the first, the problem could have been better addressed the first time. When told that the two spills had two different causes, she replied that a more proactive WASA approach in explaining what has happened would possibly help the situation. Gronner said that because everyone wants to know immediately about such incidents and the authority complies with information, notification about a spill often comes out before the cause of it is known. WASA officials said that the percentage of spills in Peachtree City is lower than in most places near Atlanta, although they are working with a “no-tolerance” approach toward such problems. Turner said that no specific data was kept during the time Georgia Utilities owned the system, but he has learned that overflows were a regular occurrence back then, as often as 10-15 times a year. Some information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was distributed and discussed, and Turner pointed out that Georgia is one of four states with notification procedures in place for spills, such as when the state's Environmental Protection Division and Fayette County Water System was informed of the two recent spills. Recent EPA statistics also indicate that 60 percent of river runoff and 50 percent of lake runoff found in chemical tests can be attributed to agriculture, Turner said, adding that such factors as construction sediment, fertilizer and other materials flowing into the lake due to a hard rain are the main problems. It was also pointed out that homeowners must be educated as to their responsibilities in keeping the lines clean, because improperly tying in water that runs off their yards can cause an imbalance in the sewer system in areas that WASA staff is unaware of. “Citizens expect spills, but not repetition in the same places,” said McMenamin. “We should let folks know ASAP when proactive things happen.”
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