Dry weather

over the last three years has taken its toll on local wells.

"We've

picked up a bunch of customers where wells went dry," confirmed Fayette

County Water System director Tony Parrott. "There have been more

this year than in the past."

In emergency

situations in which wells dry up in areas where county water is not available,

the Water System offers a deal. The customers pay the cost of running

water lines to their homes that would be adequate to serve only those

homes, and the Water System picks up the cost of making those lines large

enough to serve future customers beyond the trouble spot.

The Water Committee

last Wednesday voted to recommend a $283,485 contract to run new water

lines to six areas of the county where such problems are occurring, and

the County Commission Thursday approved the plan.

Water will

go to homes on Morris Drive with 15 homeowners participating in the cost.

On Janice Drive, 13 customers are chipping in, one of them currently having

to bring in bottled water.

One customer

in each case is bearing the cost to extend lines on Ga. Highway 74 south,

Dogwood Trail and Ellison Road, and two customers are sharing the cost

on Green Valley Drive.

All of the

projects together will add 9,700 feet of water line to the system.

Additional

costs to increase the size of the Hwy. 74 line from two inches, all that's

needed to serve the drought-stricken customer, to 20 inches to serve future

customers will be born by the Water System, along with other upgrades.

One further

cost, placing fire hydrants along the new water lines, will be paid by

the county Fire Department.

Ordinarily,

the Water Committee would not have put the contract to extend the lines

on a County Commission agenda just one day after the committee's meeting,

but in this case the project needed to be on the fast track, said Parrott.

"All six

of these water lines will serve people who have little or no water,"

he told the committee. "In some cases they're toting water, so we're

trying to get these lines installed."

In a separate

project, the Water Committee is recommending the county accept a $4,800

bid to run water lines up Ga. Highway 314. That project was originally

combined with a plan to run lines along Ga. Highway 138 as well, picking

up customers currently served by the Clayton County Water System, but

requirements of the Georgia Department of Transportation ran the cost

of those lines higher than expected.

The Water Committee

will rebid that portion of the project later.