A proposed deal that would have Peachtree City treat up to 500,000 gallons a day of sewage from Senoia “is a good deal for everybody,” according to Mike Harman, chairman of the Peachtree City Water and Sewer Authority.

In a joint meeting between WASA and the Peachtree City Council Tuesday night, Harman said the deal would keep WASA from having to raise its rates for residential customers, particularly in light of WASA losing its top customer last year when the Photocircuits plant shut down.

Photocircuits accounted for more than $500,000 of WASA’s revenue for its $6 million annual budget, noted WASA General Manager Larry Turner. The true affect of losing Photocircuits can’t be judged until the close of this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, Turner said, adding that the state water shortage will keep any similar manufacturing facility from moving here.

Under the current proposal, Senoia would pay WASA $500,000 up front and another $2.8 million in financed payments in addition to a monthly rate based on the amount of flow per 1,000 gallons of wastewater treated each day.

Harman explained that without the Senoia deal, residential sewer rates would have to be increased at some point because the percentage of the city’s sewer treatment capacity used for homes has increased due to the loss of Photocircuits in WASA’s industrial category.

Even if the Senoia deal were approved, there would still be 440,000 gallons a day of treatment capacity left for contingencies, Turner noted. And that’s after taking out calculations for annexing the entire 900-acre West Village area and further industrial and commercial development inside the city limits, he added.

Additional sewer capacity for Senoia translates into a higher probability of denser development, because sewer service allows more houses per acre than septic systems do.

Nobody on council seemed opposed to the Senoia deal, but Councilman Stuart Kourajian said he needed to see the background financial information to get a picture of what WASA’s profits were several years before Photocircuits closed.

“If you’re saying rates ‘will’ go up, that’s a whole different story than ‘possibly,’” Kourajian said, adding that he wasn’t convinced the Senoia deal was great for everyone in Peachtree City.

Council is scheduled to discuss the WASA-Senoia deal at its meeting on Thursday, June 1.

Currently, Peachtree City residential customers pay $4.38 per 1,000 gallons of sewage treated. The Senoia proposal would involve a charge of $3.50 per 1,000 gallons, but the lower cost is because Senoia will be paying for its own infrastructure and maintenance costs for the lift station and pipe that will be necessary to hook up to WASA’s Rockaway waste water treatment plant.

Also, the town of Senoia will individually bill its customers and send a lump sum check to WASA each month for the sewer flow, Turner added.

Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett asked if WASA could charge a higher rate to Senoia since Peachtree City hadn’t initially planned to provide its neighboring municipality sewer service. Harman noted that’s a decision for WASA to make and not the City Council.

Although the North Georgia Metropolitan Water Planning District shows plans for WASA to expand its plants to have a capacity of 8 million gallons a day between 2011 and 2020, Turner said no such plans are in the works. Currently WASA is permitted to discharge up to 6 million gallons of treated waste water each day.

Turner explained the planning district’s figures for the future were calculated to include sewering unincorporated Fayette County, a move that is at best unlikely under the current political climate. Part of eastern Coweta County is also drawn into the same sewer district as the WASA plants, he added.

If WASA needed to expand its capacity in the future, it could take about four years to make it happen, and that’s if the political pressure was on the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, Turner said.

At the request of Mayor Harold Logsdon, Turner also presented information on how to provide sewer access to between 80 and 90 homes to the Lake Peachtree subdivision, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Currently, those homes are on septic systems, a number of which either have reported problems or are likely to develop problems in the future.

Turner said several residents in the area have installed special pump stations and small sewer lines so they can pump their wastewater directly into the sewer system. City Manager Bernie McMullen said that if many more residents started doing that, and one of the smaller lines is cut by a third party digging in the area, it could become problematic to determine which individual line belongs to a particular customer, who is responsible for repairing it.

The least expensive way to provide sewer service in the area is to install a low pressure vacuum system, but that would virtually require all property owners to be tied in, Turner said. He guessed it would cost about $12,000 per home including the $1,750 tap-in fee, but he added that he wasn’t totally sure about the exact figure.

City Council members agreed that such a plan would have to be agreed to by the property owners in the area.

Logsdon said he had been asked about providing sewer access for the area by two land owners in that neighborhood. He added that he was concerned about the environmental impact of the failure of septic tanks so close to Lake Peachtree, which is a drinking water reservoir.

The high cost of converting to the sewer system is likely to deter some homeowners, but some are also facing failed septic tanks and resulting high costs to retrofit their homes to connect to the sewer system, several said.

“We sure do need it, though,” Logsdon said.

Turner also presented information about the possibility of providing sewer service for businesses along Huddleston Road. Currently, all but one are on septic tanks and a plan was prepared several years ago to do just that.

Back then, it would have cost $1.2 million but today the cost would probably be more like $2 million, Turner said.

“When they found out what that cost was, I got run out of town,” Turner said.

Assistant City Manager Colin Halterman said part of the reason for the high cost is because the road bed would have to be removed to install the sewer lines.

Logsdon said he was interested in the concept because he viewed the Huddleston Road area as a prime place for commercial redevelopment to occur in the future.

McMullen said the city could pursue the use of a tax assessment district that would freeze property taxes in the area, with the difference between the frozen amount and the increases that would have been applied being used to pay off the project. Doing so, however, would require approval of nearly all property owners in the area.

Plunkett said the city should pursue the concept, but she views that as a high hurdle to overcome.

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