Coweta County

received good news this week in its ongoing pursuit of future water sources.

Assistant County

Administrator Eddie Whitlock said the county learned it had been granted

a surface water withdrawal permit for up to 7.7 million gallons a day

for its new B.T. Brown reservoir.

Whitlock said

the county has been waiting for the permit to see how big the water plant

at the site would be. Now, engineers can complete a final drawing of the

plant and move ahead with construction.

The plant is

expected to open at the end of 2003.

Other water

sources for residents include:

Pumping five

to 10 million gallons of water from Griffin and Spalding County when their

new pump station is up and running in 2004.

Building a

one-million-gallon storage tank across from the familiar golf ball water

tank at Canongate on Interstate 85.

Building another

storage tank at Ga. Highway 154 and Interstate 85. This would be the county's

biggest tank and contain 1.5 million gallons of water.

The county

also plans to try groundwater recharging on 300 acres it owns near the

proposed reservoir and also extend contracts with Newnan Utilities to

keep the water pumping.