Fayette OKs $1.44 million project; participation by PTC is still undefined
A small mountain of dirt is about to come out of Lake Peachtree.
The dredging project finalized at the Jan. 22 Fayette County Board of Commissioners meeting will remove about 64,000 cubic yards from the lake, County Administrator Steve Rapson told the board.
To put that in perspective, if you spread that much dirt across the football field at Fayette County High School (measuring 120 yards from goal post to goal post and 160 feet from sideline to sideline), it would make a pile 30 feet high.
Rapson pointed out that about 100 dump truck loads per day for just over two months will be required to remove the dirt. The project is scheduled to start in February and last until sometime in May.
A bid of $1,449,410 from Massana Construction was approved by the board. The amount of the bid was very favorable compared to other bids, although the agreement between the county and Peachtree City that made the project necessary in the first place is not to everyone’s liking.
Out of 18 vendors with whom the county actually communicated about a possible bid, three firms submitted proposals, according to Rapson. Massana’s bid was far lower than the other two: $3,755,087 from Brent Scarbrough & Co., and $3,679,920 from Waterfront Property Services (Gator Dredging).
Rapson explained the reason for the huge pricing disparity, saying that the largest components of the bid pertain to site work and removal of dirt as well as hauling. Massana already has a commercial application for the dirt, so the company is essentially splitting the cost between the county and the company that is buying the dirt.
“While we are approving a $1.5 million contract, this is actually closer to a $2.6-2.7 million project,” said Rapson.
With the bid approval completed, the next step is to go out and start putting down erosion control, which Rapson said should happen in early February.
The last dredging was a wet dredging and removed about 20,000 cubic yards, while this project will be dry. The higher amount of dirt this time is “because it’s dry and you can see it instead of wondering where it is under the water,” Rapson said.
Dennis Chase was the only audience member to make a public comment, which he began by citing his experience with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service dealing with several dozen different kinds of reservoirs as giving him a better-than-average level of expertise with which to level his complaints.
Those complaints were directed at Peachtree City, which he said has not lived up to its agreement with the county.
“Reservoirs of this nature normally have a life expectancy of around 65-70 years before you dredge it the first time,” said Chase. “We are about to start a third dredging of this lake and it’s costing the Fayette County citizens millions of extra dollars, and it’s 100 percent the fault of Peachtree City. You are taking on something here that shouldn’t have to be taken on by this organization [Board of Commissioners].”
After Chase’s comments, Rapson pointed out that the county is following a 1966 agreement that was modified in 1985, although he admitted the deal was a bit “peculiar” because Lake Peachtree is actually owned by the city of Peachtree City.
“In return for us to be pulling some 4 million gallons of water out each day for our water plant, the agreement is for us to be dredging the lake every 8-10 years,” he said.
After Randy Ognio made a motion to award the contract and David Barlow seconded, Steve Brown was the only commissioner to comment on the deal.
“This is one of the worst government contracts I’ve seen in my life, and I’ve seen some bad ones,” said Brown. “But this one probably takes the cake in terms of not being professionally written. One of these days we need to come up with some terms and draw up a professionally written contract that will serve both the residents of the county and the city much better than what we have today.”
Brown said he has been asked many times — and was even asked three times the day of the meeting — about who owns the lake.
“People think the county owns that lake. The city owns that lake, the dam, the spillway, and the tree island that was created from a previous dredging,” he said. “That is city property and the city’s responsibility. For any residents that want to the county to take care of any of those items, it is the city that will be accountable for that.”
There are some supplemental bids in the contract that would allow the city to piggyback on the dredging if it so desires, as both Brown and Rapson pointed out.
The motion was approved unanimously.
Chase had some other things to say about the Lake Peachtree dam which he withheld until the general public comment portion of the meeting so that the dredging could be addressed on its own.
Having been the Fayette County coordinator for the Adopt-A-Stream program for a number of years, Chase said he also has considerable experience dealing with the Lake Peachtree dam and the water moving downstream from it.
“There were several times when Flat Creek below the dam went dry,” he said. “The first couple of times the city prevailed upon the water department to release some extra water. The third time they did not. We’ve had some fish kills resulting from this, and I protested rather loudly about it and got nowhere with it.”
Chase cited the agreement that requires the county to maintain water at a level matching the property owners along the west side of Lake Peachtree. The county has the option to not allow any water to go down the creek, and Chase said that is what was causing the problems several times before.
He urged the county to steer clear of any involvement in the repair of the dam because it will require a Clean Water Act permit from the EPA, Corps of Engineers and the state’s EPD. Fixing the dam without a permit runs the risk of being in violation of the Clean Water Act and having to start all over again.
Chase said Flat Creek is in violation of the state standards for water usage and is on the state’s 303-D non-compliance list for unsuitable oxygen levels, mostly because of a lack of sufficient water coming downstream from Lake Peachtree.
He added that Lake Kedron, a key feeder into Lake Peachtree, comes into play as well because altering the flows on one lake will require altering them on the other, which will require a variation on the permit.
“Stay clear of any expenditures on the Lake Peachtree dam until you’ve got this whole issue resolved because there are outside organizations looking at legal action against the county and the city. I don’t know if they will, but they are looking at it,” he said. “If you step into it before it’s all cleared up, you may in fact have a bigger problem than you have right now. Go ahead and do the dredging, but please don’t do anything to the dam until you’ve given it some additional consideration.
“If the people in Peachtree City want it, let them fix it and get their own Clean Water Act permit.”
