Despite the drought and outdoor watering restrictions, it’s possible that the soccer fields at Peachtree City’s baseball and soccer complex may be sprinkled again in the not-too-distant future.

Officials are planning to send specially treated “re-use” water from a city sewer plant to be used for irrigating the fields. The water would come from the Rockaway Sewer Treatment Plant, which happens to be directly adjacent to the sports complex.

Re-use water is treated through additional processes at the sewer plant before it is distributed. Although almost all outdoor watering is banned currently, state officials are allowing an exception for water that is reclaimed from sewer facilities including re-use water.

Currently the city’s Water and Sewer Authority is sending reuse water from its Line Creek treatment plant to be used for irrigation on the Planterra Ridge golf course, said WASA General Manager Larry Turner.

The plan will require a capital expenditure to lay a service pipe from the Rockaway sewer treatment plan to the soccer fields, and construction could be complete within two to four weeks’ time, Turner added. Also required will be a real-time monitoring device at the plant to monitor water clarity, Turner added.

Although in the past there had been resistance to using reuse water on the soccer fields, a recent meeting explaining the process has put soccer association officials more at ease with the concept, Turner said. In part that has to do with the large investment in keeping the fields maintained, Turner added.

“Our water’s better than what they’re getting out of Line Creek,” Turner said.

WASA will charge a flat fee for use of the re-use water, which otherwise would be released back downstream in Line Creek, Turner said. He is projecting the cost would work out to between 50 and 60 cents per 1,000 gallons, which is quite cheaper than rates for regular potable water provided by the water system.

Using a flat fee system will work well because it won’t require a water meter to be installed, Turner added.

Turner said work on the project would begin fairly soon. He also noted the city is interested in having re-use water available at the Meade Field sports complex several parcels away from the Rockaway sewer plant, and along the way developers of those two adjacent properties are also interested in the re-use water, he added. That project would occur sometime further in the future, Turner said.

There has also been talk of perhaps extending reuse watering lines to new subdivisions in the Wilksmoor Village area, as it would be relatively easy to put in the infrastructure before the homes are built.

New WASA member Phil Mahler said he would like to see reuse water offered to many city residents, but Turner said that wouldn’t be economically feasible because it requires new lines to be installed underground. In the case of the new Wilksmoor Village area, that’s more feasible because it’s a matter of extending the re-use water line that currently runs to Planterra golf course, Turner has said.

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