By JOHN MUNFORD
and JOHN THOMPSON

A dormant proposal to link homes in Senoia to Peachtree City’s sewage treatment system has been resurrected. This time, with a new mayor and two new council members in the driver’s seat, the deal may go through.

Monday night, the Senoia City Council voted unanimously to re-open negotiations with the Peachtree City Water and Sewer Authority for up to 500,000 gallons a day of sewage treatment at WASA’s Rockaway Road plant.

Senoia City Administrator Richard Ferry told the City Council that the city would exceed capacity at its treatment plant in 2010 and had explored various options to expand its capacity.

The cheapest alternative, he explained, is to pump the wastewater to Peachtree City’s plant on Rockaway Road.

Mayor Robert Belisle, along with Ferry, met with Peachtree City Mayor Harold Logsdon and City Manager Bernie McMullen Jan. 9 to explore the option.

“It’s a different political climate now,’ Belisle added.

City Attorney Drew Whalen explained that when Peachtree City purchased the sewer system from Georgia Utilities that a stipulation in the contract was that WASA would have to seek permission to expand the sewer system outside the city limits of Peachtree City.

“This really isn’t an expansion. “It’s a wastewater treatment contract,” he said.

The resolution that was passed Monday night seeks consent of the Peachtree City Council to begin negotiations with WASA.

Last spring, WASA prepared an initial offer to Senoia which involved an initial “tap-in fee” of $3 million and a charge of $3.50 per 1,000 gallons of treated sewage per day. Plus, Senoia would be solely responsible for building the pipes from its sewer system to WASA’s Rockaway Road plant. The negotiations then were conducted without the knowledge of the City Council and came to a halt when council members found out.

WASA also planned to “finance” all but $500,000 of the initial capital outlay from Senoia, with the remainder accruing at 5 percent interest per year.

WASA General Manager Larry Turner said as far as he is concerned, that offer “is still on the table.” Turner added that he has been told that Senoia officials will be asking permission from the Peachtree City Council soon.

That is a political change of direction from last year when WASA officials claimed they did not need Council permission despite language in WASA’s contract with the city that requires council approval of any “extension” of the sewer system. WASA contended that the proposal with Senoia wouldn’t involve an extension of the city’s sewer system beyond the city limits, but instead it would be Senoia tapping onto the sewer system.

Even if the Senoia extension is approved, WASA would have plenty of sewer capacity for the build-out of the rest of the city, including growth in the industrial park, remaining residential growth “and anything else that may come up,” Turner said.

The city currently has an excess of about 2.1 million gallons a day of capacity, Turner said. Subtracting the proposed Senoia deal, WASA would have 1.6 million gallons a day of capacity left.

WASA estimates needing 500,000 gallons a day for the now-undeveloped commercial property in Peachtree City, another 370,000 gallons for industrial park sewer customers, another 500,000 gallons for the build-out level of homes in the city and another 300,000 gallons a day if the city wanted to convert all homes currently on septic tanks to sewer usage.

The deal could provide a financial boost for WASA in light of last year’s shuttering of the authority’s biggest sewer customer, Photocircuits. That company accounted for roughly $400,000 a year in revenue, and so far WASA has been able to use its reserve funds to make up the difference, Turner said.

“We could operate on our reserves for several years without any rate increase,” Turner said. “Eventually we will deplete our reserves and we’ll have to replace that revenue stream.”

Turner previously has said the proposed deal with Senoia is in accordance with the findings of the North Georgia Water Planning District, which has Peachtree City’s two sewage treatment plants tabbed as providing “regional” services.

Senoia officials plan to use the extra sewage capacity for all of its developments on the east side of town, freeing up capacity in Senoia’s sewer system for growth on the west side of Senoia, Turner said.

The deal will not allow for further growth along Rockaway Road that isn’t already coming, Turner added. It would likely take about two years of design and construction work on Senoia’s part before WASA “would even see the first drop” of sewage from its Coweta neighbor, Turner said.

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