The Peachtree

City Water and Sewer Authority has violated its permit limitations for

the discharge of copper at its aging Flat Creek treatment plant for three

consecutive months.

WASA General

Manager Larry Turner said the limit on copper is .27 parts per million,

but the violations are of .01 parts per million, a small amount. Nevertheless,

the authority will pay a fine of $1,000 per month for the violations as

part of its consent order with the EPD for past violations.

Operations

Manager Susan Johnson said at WASA's meeting Monday that the Flat Creek

facility uses "technology that is 30 years old". The Flat Creek

plant will be closed in the near future as WASA undertakes a $15 million

expansion of the sewer system to raise the amount of sewage treatment

capacity to 6 million gallons per day.

Turner added

that the sewer system expansion will allow the industrial waste to be

handled more easily at the authority's other plants.

Authority member

Steve Bradley inquired whether fines could be levied by WASA against whatever

business is causing the copper violation. It was determined that fines

could be used, however in this case it would be difficult to prove which

entity was the violator, according to WASA staff.

However, Photocircuits

has recently changed its pretreatment process that was designed to reduce

the amount of copper it discharges with its industrial waste that is accepted

for further treatment by WASA, according to Johnson.

But other entities

have copper register in their discharge, Turner said.