Members of

the Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority and City

Council met for a few minutes Monday afternoon in a

special session, during which they mostly assured one

another that all were on the same page regarding the

safety of the city's water system.

WASA

officials discussed details concerning the two recent

spills into Lake Peachtree, but also emphasized the

continuous work being done to bring the system up to

where it should be since its purchase from Georgia

Utilities.

Some of the

150-mile sewer system, the size of which is said to have

been underestimated some 20 percent by Georgia Utilities,

dates back 30 years with little or no attention being

paid to it, according to WASA Chairman John Gronner.

New

equipment is being implemented this month that will help

keep an eye on the entire system and spot potential

problems. A television system that will take pictures of

the system is coming online to complement a new vacuum

truck acquired this spring.

Whereas

recent responses to spills have been reactive, Gronner

said, new advances in technology such as this will allow

a more proactive response.

The most

recent spill was caused by a clog due to the accumulation

of roots, along with a manhole that was too shallow,

according to WASA board members and general manager Larry

Turner. The root problem is systemic of what exists

throughout the system, Gronner said, and with most of the

lines 25 feet below the ground, getting to every trouble

spot is not an easy task.

Once the

new TV equipment is in place, the goal is to photograph

the entire sewer system every three years - roughly

one mile per week, Turner said. WASA staffers are working

right now inspecting the lines and gathering data for

regular maintenance in the future, he added.

Mayor Pro

Tempore Annie McMenamin said that measures such as these

will improve the system and ease the concerns of citizens

such as those she has been hearing from in recent weeks.

Saying that

her top concern is the safety of the citizens, McMenamin

noted that a perception exists throughout the community

that because the second spill was so soon after the

first, the problem could have been better addressed the

first time.

When told

that the two spills had two different causes, she replied

that a more proactive WASA approach in explaining what

has happened would possibly help the situation.

Gronner

said that because everyone wants to know immediately

about such incidents and the authority complies with

information, notification about a spill often comes out

before the cause of it is known.

WASA

officials said that the percentage of spills in Peachtree

City is lower than in most places near Atlanta, although

they are working with a "no-tolerance" approach

toward such problems.

Turner said

that no specific data was kept during the time Georgia

Utilities owned the system, but he has learned that

overflows were a regular occurrence back then, as often

as 10-15 times a year.

Some

information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

was distributed and discussed, and Turner pointed out

that Georgia is one of four states with notification

procedures in place for spills, such as when the state's

Environmental Protection Division and Fayette County

Water System was informed of the two recent spills.

Recent EPA

statistics also indicate that 60 percent of river runoff

and 50 percent of lake runoff found in chemical tests can

be attributed to agriculture, Turner said, adding that

such factors as construction sediment, fertilizer and

other materials flowing into the lake due to a hard rain

are the main problems.

It was also

pointed out that homeowners must be educated as to their

responsibilities in keeping the lines clean, because

improperly tying in water that runs off their yards can

cause an imbalance in the sewer system in areas that WASA

staff is unaware of.

"Citizens

expect spills, but not repetition in the same

places," said McMenamin. "We should let folks

know ASAP when proactive things happen."

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