The Peachtree City Water

and Sewerage Authority has avoided financial penalties

relating to last year's spills into Lake Peachtree, but

the state's Environmental Protection Division has not let

them off the hook yet.

An administrative order has

been issued by the EPD that gives the city some specific

procedures to follow in the next few months, WASA general

manager Larry Turner reported at the March 6 WASA public

meeting.

The issue is a pair of

unpermitted discharges into Lake Peachtree in June of

last year. After a standard investigation, EPD issued a

consent order that included a $32,000 penalty to be paid

This was unacceptable to

WASA, and after researching other incidents in the metro

Atlanta area, Turner reported at a previous meeting that

other jurisdictions had sustained much larger spills with

far smaller financial repercussions.

WASA and EPD officials met

Nov. 3 to discuss the proposed consent order, and WASA

agreed to nearly all of the conditions of the order, but

suggested an $11,000 penalty. "EPD could not concur

with this proposed penalty," stated a Feb. 24 letter

from Department of Natural Resources director Harold

Reheis.

An administrative order can

be issued unilaterally as long as no financial penalties

are included, Turner said. WASA has the right to appeal

the financial penalty to the attorney general's office.

The new order says WASA

must:

� Submit within 150 days

the results of a collection system inspection and

evaluation of sewer lines greater than 12 inches in

diameter and lift stations located near water bodies

designated as community water supply systems;

� Submit within 180 days a

list of proposed long-term sewer system rehabilitation

work and a schedule of implementation;

� Submit within 240 days,

and every 90 days after, a written status report

detailing WASA progress toward completion of corrective

actions required by this order; and

� Continue major spill

sampling requirements by monitoring Lake Peachtree above

and below the spill locations for one year.

None of these conditions

pose a problem, Turner said, and in fact his office was

in the process of implementing most of them already.

WASA has requested a

hearing with the attorney general's office, whom Turner

said will probably try to mediate or work out a

settlement before doing anything else. It could be six

months before WASA hears from the attorney general,

Turner said.

In other business, WASA has

reached an agreement to lease some of its property on Ga.

Highway 85 for a local 4-H shooting awareness program.

The lease is for five

years, at $24 per year, with Quail Unlimited's Towaliga

chapter. The land will be used solely for the 4-H's

Shooting Awareness, Fundamentals and Education (SAFE)

program, Turner said.

The land consists of 275.7

acres, of which about 150 acres are usable and not

wetlands, one mile north of the Ga. Highway 74

intersection on the west side of Hwy. 85. The property

came with the sewer system when it was purchased from

Georgia Utilities.

Quail Unlimited will hold a

$1 million insurance policy as part of the lease

agreement, Turner said, and either side can terminate the

lease with a 10-day written notice.

The land will probably be

declared surplus in the future when WASA expansion plans

are finalized.