Fayette County should be drawing water from Lake McIntosh by 2011, despite having to seek a different way to fund part of the project.

“It’s still on schedule,” said Water Systems Director Tony Parrott.

Last week, the system learned that because of the state’s economic crisis, nearly $40 million in grants would probably be cut for local water projects from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority.

The county had applied for a $4.9 million grant to help fund the project, but will now look to bonds or other funding mechanisms.

“It was an opportunity we had, but this will not set the project back,” Parrott reiterated.

The total cost of the project is expected to be $23 million, and Parrott said the state’s Safe Dam Authority is currently reviewing the project and there’s timber being cut on the site.

The 650-acre reservoir will be located on Line Creek, astraddle the Fayette-Coweta border south of Ga. Highway 54. The site of the project was first identified as a possible lake site in the 1960s by developers who later abandoned the idea of building a lake when difficulties acquiring land were encountered.

The proposed reservoir will yield 10.4 millions gallons per day for drinking water that will be processed at the Crosstown Water Treatment Plant on TDK Boulevard in Peachtree City.

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