The

Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority is expected

to hear an update on its permitting status at Monday

night's regular meeting, amid recent talk by some

citizens of possible expansion of the system relating to

annexation.

The

Authority has a standard five-year permit that regulates

how much volume can be treated by the city -

currently about 4.9 million gallons per day.

That permit

is up for renewal, and Turner said the city's current

request is to simply renew with no change as to capacity.

An official

with the Water Protection Branch of the state's

Environmental Protection Division confirmed that the

request is a standard renewal, and there has been no

request to increase capacity.

General

manager Larry Turner has stated on more than one occasion

that the system will eventually need to be expanded

somewhat, but the process of actually getting state

approval for that is still in the distant future.

Turner also

has been careful not to get into the annexation

discussion in any way, saying only that water and sewer

capacity will one day need to be increased regardless of

annexation.

In recent

months, opponents of annexation have often cited

increased density due to availability of sewerage as

reasons to stop annexation. Local environmentalist Dennis

Chase of the Line Creek Association wrote extensively on

the issue last week in The Citizen.

That issue

would appear to be dead, at least for the time being. The

City Council heard a proposal from a group of property

owners in the West Village at the Jan. 20 meeting but

voted not to lift the current annexation moratorium in

the city.

As for

enlarging the sewer system, Turner said there will be no

specific recommendations at Monday's meeting, but rather

an outline of where the city is on its permit status so

that the board can stay properly informed.

Turner

added that the Line Creek treatment plant needs to be

replaced, having been built 35 years ago as a temporary

facility. It costs about twice as much to operate as

newer plants do, he said, mainly because of lower flow

capability.

If the

authority decides at some point to expand, it would make

economic sense to do so in conjunction with projects such

as updating the Line Creek facility, Turner said. There

will be a certain number of fixed costs involved whether

the city adds 100,000 gallons of capacity or a million

gallons, he added.

Also on

Monday's agenda is a discussion of the Line Creek

entrance road on the back side of Falcon Field. Turner

said that the airport has approached the authority about

possibly sharing in the expense of paving that road and

using it in the future for its own expansion.

The entire

road is on the east side of Line Creek and sits entirely

in Fayette County.

"That

road can get rough at times," Turner said.