The presence

of copper in lab tests from the aging Flat Creek wastewater treatment

plant in Peachtree City is causing some concern.

The obvious

culprit has already been ruled out since lab data indicates that industrial

sewage isn't to blame, said Susan Johnson, operations manager of the Peachtree

City Water and Sewer Authority.

That means

there's a problem in the treatment process that needs to be fixed, but

nailing down the answer won't be easy, Johnson told the authority at its

regular meeting Monday night.

"There

are no straightforward or easy answers," Johnson cautioned. "...

The search is very much like looking for a needle in a haystack."

To find the

problem, WASA will begin testing for the copper content in treated wastewater

every week, although their permit only requires monthly testing. Johnson

said more tests may be conducted on the plant's pH and alkalinity levels,

but those are more expensive and the results won't be in quickly, she

said.

"We need

to collect more data to determine a treatment strategy to remove the copper,"

Johnson said.

The copper

violations at the Flat Creek plant have cropped up for each of the last

four months, and WASA will pay a $1,000 fine to the state Environmental

Protection Division for each of those violations.

WASA General

Manager Larry Turner said the variety of flows to the Flat Creek plant

can be difficult to handle. On a weekday, the plant handles up to 600,000

gallons, but on the weekends that drops to 150,000 gallons a day due to

the dropoff in discharge from industries that are idle over the weekend,

Turner said.

Although the

Flat Creek plant will be decommissioned after WASA completes its sewer

system expansion next year, Johnson said it is important to have the copper

issue solved by the time Flat Creek's sewage inflow is diverted to the

city's larger wastewater treatment plant.

WASA sends

its copper samples to an outside lab for testing because the equipment

involved is expensive, Johnson said. As a result, it takes several days

before the results of the copper samples are available, she added.

While Photocircuits

has a high copper output in its wastewater, it pretreats that wastewater

before submitting it to WASA for a final treatment, Johnson said.

All industries

who use pretreatment programs provide Johnson with their test results,

she said. That way, she is able to dismiss the industries as a source

of the increased copper levels.

Johnson said

she thinks the problem is at the Flat Creek plant itself. It could be

that the presence of other metals is affecting the solubility of copper,

causing the higher copper readings, she said.

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