One can't escape

the feeling of spaciousness when walking through Fayette County's new

South Fayette Water Treatment Plant on Antioch Road.

But it's not

wasted space. The plant is designed to ultimately triple the amount of

water it can treat, without having to build any new buildings.

Invited dignitaries

will get a chance to tour the plant at a special open house Dec. 4. Operating

since early summer, the plant is open for tours anytime for students and

other groups. Phone 770-461-1146 to set one up.

Built at a

cost of $12 million over the last two years, the plant is now delivering

six million gallons a day of treated water to county homes, increasing

the county's overall capacity to 20 mgd.

As future demand

warrants, the plant is already equipped to increase its production to

nine mgd, and space is provided for additional pumps, filters and pipes

to double that, to 18 mgd.

Raw water flows

into a 27-million-gallon holding pond from across the road at the county's

new Horton Creek Reservoir. If need be, water can be pumped from nearby

Flint River directly into the holding pond, or into Lake Horton. And the

county recently decided to spend an additional $1.19 million to upgrade

the pumps and lines to handle the future expansion.

The South Fayette

plant is a key component of the county Water Committee's long-term plan

to keep the water supply ahead of demand for years to come.

The plant is

tied into a recently completed loop water line so that water can be sent

to anywhere in the county from anywhere in the county, operator Alisa

McCathern explains.

For instance,

in addition to supplying the current six mgd to the South Fayette Plant,

the system pumps eight mgd of raw water to the Crosstown Treatment Plant

in Peachtree City, which was recently expanded from 4.5 to 13.4 mgd capacity.

With a tap

on the keyboard, McCathern calls up a schematic showing the current condition

of all the water tanks and plants in the system.

Two new water

tanks now under construction will almost double the above-ground storage

of treated water, from 3.75 million gallons to 7.25 million gallons.

A tank at Ga.

Highway 92 and Lee's Mill Road is almost complete crews are painting now

and officials hope to start using the tank in January. And clearing has

just begun for a tank on Ellis Road just off Ga. Highway 85. Each tank

will hold two million gallons. An older half-million-gallon tank will

be torn down.