Fayetteville

will eventually be able to double the amount of sewage it can treat with

the proposed renovation of its inactive 23-year-old sewage treatment plant.

The Fayetteville

City Council picked one of four options to rehabilitate the old plant

at its workshop session Thursday night. Two of the options were deemed

cost prohibitive with price tags of $8.74 million and $12.3 million and

estimated high operation costs. A third option would only provide an additional

1.25 million gallons a day but at a more reasonable price tag of $4.41

million.

But for $5.76

million, the city could gain an extra 2.5 million gallons a day, which

should be plenty to cover Fayetteville's future growth, officials said.

Council reached a consensus to head in this direction, which gave the

city's engineering firm the go-ahead to work on more detailed drawings

for the project.

"I think

(it) allows us to meet the community's needs through build-out,"

said Mayor Ken Steele.

The city plans

to use revenue bonds to finance the project which will not require a public

referendum. Steele said this city's water and sewer program is completely

paid for by user fees and not at all subsidized by city tax revenues,

so using revenue bonds is appropriate, he said.

"If you

use water and if you flush the toilet, you pay the price," Steele

said.

City Manager

Joe Morton said preliminary indications are that the city's sewer rates

won't have to go up for the first five years after the plant comes on

line. The last time the city's sewer rates changes was in 1992 when the

rates were actually decreased, it was noted.

The city currently

charges $1.65 per 1,00 gallons to treat wastewater, said Rick Eastin,

Fayetteville's water and sewer director.

The city's

sewer service includes a proportional share fee so new structures connecting

to the system pay for their share of the future capital improvements,

officials said.

Currently,

the city's only operating sewage treatment plant can handle up to 2.5

million gallons a day; the expansion council is eyeing would double that

amount. The city currently has a permit to discharge up to 3.75 million

gallons a day of treated sewage into Whitewater Creek, and officials will

need a new permit from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to

treat a higher amount in the future.

The city has

averaged 2.04 million gallons a day of treated sewage so far this year,

officials said. Being able to treat 5 million gallons a day will meet

Fayetteville's projected wastewater needs up to the year 2020, although

city officials think they will actually need between 3.65 and 4 million

gallons a day by 2013-2014 when the city is expected to reach its build-out

stage.

Those figures

were developed based on the city's current boundaries without considering

any areas outside the city that might be annexed, Morton said.

"I don't

see us using much more than 4 million gallons a day," Morton said.

Brennan Jones

of Integrated Science and Engineering, the city's engineering consultant,

said the expansion will allow the city to take the current plant off line

for maintenance purposes, which cannot be done now since there is no other

facility to treat the sewage.

"I think

it's critical for us to have a facility that's reliable day in and day

out," Steele said.

Officials plan

for the project to be completed and on-line by August 2005. The expansion

project has been on the drawing board for some time, as it was discussed

at the past two annual city council retreats.

The Fayette

County School System and Fayette Community Hospital are the two largest

users of the sewer system in Fayetteville, officials said.

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