The South Fulton Municipal

Regional Water and Sewage Authority once again appears to be on-track.

A flap over differing views regarding the authority's scope had threatened

the accord.

A revised written operating

agreement, the result of recent re-negotiations, was presented to the

tri-city board by attorneys on Tuesday night.

The contents of the agreement

were not discussed during the meeting. Members of the authority opted

to take copies to their respective councils for approval. The proposal

will be finalized at the next Authority meeting on December 10th.

Charles Corbin, Keck &

Woods, updated Authority members on the status of the 404 permit process.

404 refers to section 404 of the Clean Water Act which established a program

to regulate the discharge of dredged and fill material into waters of

the United States, including wetlands.

Applicants must show they have

taken steps to "avoid wetland impacts where practicable, minimize

potential impacts to wetlands, provided compensation for any remaining,

unavoidable impacts through activities to restore or create wetlands."

Representatives from the Corp

of Engineers, the EPD, EPA and others did an on-site walk-through of the

proposed reservoir site. Corbin said they seemed to "generally be

in favor" of the project. The application process should be completed

with in 3 to 4 weeks.

In the October meeting Ecological

Solutions and Keck & Wood, Inc., project consultants, were charged

with developing a presentation suitable for public meetings.

Andy Whorton, Ecological Solutions,

presented the authority and the sparse audience a review of the preliminary

overview. Authority members were pleased with the presentation and requested

that a similar presentation be given to the three city's Council. The

completed presentation will be made available to the public via Fairburn

and Union City's websites and other distributable media.

Currently Union City and Fairburn

purchase wholesale water from Atlanta. Palmetto has two reservoirs and

a water treat

ment plant which supplies a maximum treatment of 0.5 mgd (million gallons

per day). Palmetto depends on Atlanta as a backup. Current demand for

water in Union City is approximately 1.3 mgd, the City of Palmetto uses

roughly 0.4 mgd and Fairburn consumes 0.6 mgd, a cumulative need of 2.2

mgd.

Somewhat conservative projections

for the year 2050 project that the cumulative need for the 3 cities to

be 8.1 mgd. Peak usage could rise as high as 11.2 mgd.

The projected increase for

water combined with the lack of reliability from Atlanta's ailing water

system and a projected shortage for the Fulton County region were cited

as some of the factors spurring the authority to action.

A number of options were considered

on-line reservoir.

While some of the alternatives,

such as water conservation, will be incorporated into the water plan,

none were feasible to meet the needs of the growing region.

Options considered and rejected

include continues dependence on Atlanta, expansion of Palmetto's reservoirs,

river or stream intake and groundwater.

The reservoir would satisfy

water quality concerns, would not conflict with South Fulton's 2015 Land

Use Plan, would have low operation costs as compared to off-line storage

and would meet the yield requirements.

The presentation continued

on to explain the process of choosing the best site for the reservoir.

The goals were to find a drainage basin adequate to supply water to meet

projected needs, to minimize or avoid environmental impacts to "maximum

extent practicable," and to have minimum displacement to landowners.

Additionally, economic factors

and available land and proximity to the tri-city service area were considered.

Camp Creek, Deep/Line Creeks,

Tuggle Creek, Pea Creek, White Oak Creek, Cedar Creek and three sites

on Bear Creek were studied.

Ultimately a 530 acre site

on Bear Creek was chosen as the preferred alternative. The authority expects

a yield of 13 mgd from the 310-acre "full pool"-maximum reservoir

elevation for storing water for the project.

Local benefits for the project

included a dependable yield for the next 50 years, additional

greenspace, minimum displacement and a local water supply.

Mayor Ralph Moore, Union City,

noted it was not easy to discuss projects like this one with the general

population due to the technical nature of the information and expressed

his appreciation for their work. It was requested that the presentation

be made into a video allowing for questions and comments at the end.