The Peachtree

City Water and Sewer Authority has approved a plan to begin the preliminary

design that would double the capacity of the Rockaway sewage treatment

facility.

At its meeting

Monday night, WASA approved spending up to $240,000 on the preliminary

design process for the expansion. Currently, the Rockaway plant can treat

two million gallons per day, but after the proposed expansion it will

be able to treat four million gallons per day.

The expansion

will not only help meet the city's future sewer needs, but it will also

allow the city to close its oldest sewage treatment facility which has

become expensive to operate, Turner added.

The authority

has already taken the first step toward getting permission from state

environmental regulators by performing a watershed assessment study, said

WASA General Manager Larry Turner.

After the preliminary

design is completed, which is expected to take six months, it must be

submitted to the EPD for approval, Turner said.

"Then

it depends on how long it takes them to issue the draft permit,"

Turner said.

After the EPD

approves the preliminary design, it should take another four months to

finish the final design, Turner said. It could be a year or more before

construction on the expansion actually begins, he added.

In other business,

the authority approved a $584,350 contract to replace three pump stations:

one by Lake Peachtree, one behind the Publix shopping center and one off

Stratford Court. The contract goes to Willow Construction, Inc. which

has performed work for the city before, Turner said.

Willow Construction

was the low bidder, with the next highest bid at over $617,000 and the

other three bids received were over $700,000 each.

The construction

will take approximately nine months although a pre-construction conference

is scheduled for next week, Turner said.

The authority

also approved the issuance of a credit card to be used by WASA staff for

purchases. Turner said the card would allow some supplies and other necessities

to be purchased at lower costs over the Internet as opposed to making

purchases in stores.

The card has

a $5,000 limit and would be paid off each month, Turner assured the authority.

The card would

also make it easier for employees to pick up items at stores that don't

like to deal with the purchase order process. The card would be checked

out by the employee and a receipt must be brought back with the purchase

when the card is turned back in, Turner said.

Turner also

briefed the authority on two permit violations at the Flat Creek plant

which were reported in September. He said the violations involved the

presence of ammonia, but so far there is no explanation as to how the

chemical showed up.

More tests

are being conducted by a private lab to see if the ammonia results were

due to a testing error, Turner added. The tests are conducted regularly