WASA approves talks with town on treating 500,000 gallons a day; Amos says developers are waiting for OK

Monday night, the Peachtree City Water and Sewer Authority unanimously approved having its general manager enter discussions with the town of Tyrone, which is exploring the possibility of hooking up to Peachtree City’s sewer system.

Tyrone currently has no sewer system of its own, but contracts with the city of Fairburn for 250,000 gallons per day of sewer capacity to serve two John Wieland subdivisions on the town’s north side.

Tyrone Town Manager Barry Amos told the authority that the town thinks 500,000 gallons a day would meet all its current and future needs as the town’s population is projected to go from about 7,000 people to about 9,000 people.

Amos said if the town got 500,000 gallons of capacity from Peachtree City, it would not need the current 250,000 gallons of capacity it currently sends to Fulton County for treatment.

Amos said the city’s sewer service would be for residential and commercial development but no industrial customers.

WASA Chairman Mike Harman noted that the authority will bring the matter to the Peachtree City Council, which won’t likely happen until a formal agreement is in place.

“We’re not prepared to say yes or no,” Harmon said.

A deal would benefit WASA, which would gain a new large customer in Tyrone to replace Photocircuits, which shuttered two years ago and was one of the largest sewer customers. WASA General Manager Larry Turner said the authority has been making up the difference from its cash reserve fund, depleting it down to about $8 million.

WASA member John Gronner said he also liked a possible Tyrone deal from an environmental perspective, as sewage treatment is seen as more environmentally friendly than the use of septic tanks.

Turner noted that the city has about about 760,000 gallons a day of excess sewage treatment capacity available.

Amos said hooking up to Peachtree City is one of Tyrone’s options, but he noted that the town has received no confirmation that it could increase its current sewage treatment capacity.

Turner said that time is of the essence to make a decision on Tyrone’s involvement because of the pending development in Peachtree City’s West Village area, where two newly annexed parcels push the city limits right to the border of Tyrone. Since the sewer infrastructure will be going in for the West Village, it’s possible that Tyrone could pay the developers of those two subdivisions to up-size the system to accommodate Tyrone’s needs, Turner said.

Amos also said an answer in the near term would benefit Tyrone also.

“We have some developers who would like to have known yesterday,” Amos said.

Tyrone would be responsible for building the necessary infrastructure to link with the city’s sewer system, Turner has said.

Although most of Tyrone’s homes are on septic tanks, which has served as a natural choke on city-like growth because of the minimum one-acre lots needed for septic fields, the town first began sewer service in 2002 with service to the Southampton subdivision developed by John Wieland Homes.

When Tyrone first made that sewer deal with the city of Fairburn for 250,000 gallons of capacity a day, Fairburn officials planned to build a sewer treatment plant. Since then, Amos explained, Fairburn abandoned that concept.

It could be Tyrone doesn’t need the full 500,000 gallons a day of sewage capacity that it’s projecting now, Amos added.

Amos said Tyrone officials noticed when WASA proposed last year to allow Senoia to ship its treated sewage to Peachtree City in a plan that was ultimately voted down by the Peachtree City Council.

The council was operating under a pledge from the mid-1990s that the city system would never be extended beyond the city’s borders.