At the conclusion

of the recent Union City Council meeting, Mayor Ralph Moore took the opportunity

to voice his concerns regarding Union City's status in the South Fulton

Municipal Water Authority.

Union City,

Fairburn and Palmetto formed a coalition in April of 2000 to address water

and sewage issues in the tri-city area. The authority is comprised of

two appointed members from each city and one at-large member appointed

Part of the

mission of the authority is to provide and plan for adequate wastewater

treatment to address future needs.

Prior to the

advent of the authority, Union City had been independently planning to

ensure its citizens would not run into trouble with wastewater disposal

or incur excessive charges in paying for the treatment of the effluence.

In 1996 state

officials informed the city they could no longer turn wastewater into

the creek that ran beside the plant they had operated since 1969 and that

they must go to the land application system.

Unfortunately,

although they had adequate land, it would not "perk" and they

had to abandon the plant.

The city then

entered into its current agreement with Fulton County to handle its wastewater

at their Camp Creek facility.

Union City

pays $1.37 per 1,000 gallons, up to 1.5 million gallons per day.

If they exceed

the 1.5 mgp, the cost more than doubles to $3.33 per 1,000 gallons. While

Union City has not yet exceeded the 1.5 mgp, according to Charles Corbin,

city engineer, "a lot of construction will close that gap."

Fulton County

is treating approximately 1.3 mpg per day for Union City.

With the advent

of the new authority in 2000, Union City had asked the group to looking

into options that would serve the three-city region.

Taking into

consideration information provided from the authority and Fulton County,

Union City officials had narrowed their options for future wastewater

treatment to three. They could, said Sonja Carter, Union City City Administrator,

build their own plant, chose to buy into or purchase additional treatment

from Fulton County or the authority can build a treatment center to serve

all three cities on the west side of I-85 to accommodate future development.

Mayor Moore

and the council had been focused on building their own plant as potentially

the best way to deal with short-term needs. According to the mayor, they

were within two weeks of making a final decision - and they were unaware

of another option open to the City which could potentially save a "lot

of money."

The mayor had

received information just prior to the City Council meeting regarding

a potential expansion of a plant being built by Fairburn.

He was also

informed that Fairburn was considering entering an agreement with Palmetto

to treat their overflow effluence.

If Union City

could utilize the facility for overflow above the current 1.5 mpg going

to Camp Creek, the city would not need to build its own facility and could

save a considerable amount in overflow charges.

"It has

come to my attention that we now have the ability to possibly gain access

to the City of Fairburn's 2 million gallon capacity sewer treatment facility.

I'm concerned that this was not presented to the board a lot earlier by

Fairburn," Moore said.

"We should

have been in on the early planning stages. Plans don't happen overnight,"

Moore continued. "I'm concerned that we're not being considered as

an equal part of this team."

In a subsequent

conversation with Charles Corbin, who serves as a consultant to the authority

and city engineer for Union City and Fairburn and assistant engineer for

Palmetto, he stated he should have done a better job of keeping the mayor

and council informed.