Written 10/23/06

County Eyes Apalachee for Wastewater

Oconee County has received a preliminary allocation from the state of Georgia to discharge up to 2 million gallons per day of treated waste water from the Rocky Branch sewage plant into the Apalachee River.

Such a Waste Load Allocation (WLA) is required before the County can seek permission to discharge into the Apalachee. So far, the County appears not to have followed up on the allocation. It has until June 13, 2007, to do so.

The request for the WLA for the Apalachee is one of at least four such requests the County has made of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) since 2003. The County has made two requests for WLAs for the Middle Oconee River and one for Barber Creek. One of the Middle Oconee requests also included a request for Calls Creek.

The County has used the WLA for Barber Creek by requesting an application to begin discharging 1.0 million gallons per day (MGD) of treated sewage water into the creek. The state EPD has drafted a permit for the County and sought public comment. At least 60 letters have been sent to the state asking for a hearing on that draft permit. No decision has yet been announced on the requests for a hearing.

Oconee County has refused to adopt a Waste Water Treatment Master Plan, though it has received two drafts of plans from its consultants, Jordan Jones & Goulding of Atlanta, and it indicated after the first draft was received that a plan would be adopted. The lack of a plan makes it difficult to understand exactly why the County is seeking WLAs for the Apalachee and other streams.

County officials have given conflicting statements about plans for future sewage treatment in the County.

The WLA given to Oconee County is the first given by the state for direct discharge into the Apalachee. Jeffrey Larson, manager of the Permitting, Compliance and Enforcement Program at EPD, wrote to me on August 18, 2006, saying that two permits for discharge into the Apalachee watershed already have been issued by the EPD, and that "two waste load allocations have been granted for direct discharges to the Apalachee River."

Both of the allocations Mr. Larson is referring would seem to be for Oconee County, as the WLA the County received is actually for two separate discharges, one of 1.0 MGD and the other of 2.0 MGD. The County could use one or the other.

The County wrote to the EPD back in April of 2005 requesting "two separate" planning level waste load allocations (PWLA) "for discharges of 1.0 and 2.0 MGD, respectively, into the Apalachee River."

The letter, written on behalf of the County by Jim Sunta of Precision Planning, Inc, of Lawrenceville (PPI), said that discharge into the Apalachee "may also be feasible as an alternate to Barber Creek." But the letter further said that "the County believes that future development may eventually require an ultimate expansion of the Rocky Branch WRF (Water Reclamation Facility) to 2.0 MGD."

In fact, PPI, in the Antidegradation Review it produced for the County in December of 2005, said that "Preliminary studies have indicated that once the proposed project (expansion of Rocky Branch to 1.0 MGD) is completed, the facilities can be upgraded to produce as much as 4.0 MGD of reuse quality effluent without requiring additional land or encroaching on existing buffer areas."

The discharge into the Apalachee would be "approximately 3,000 feet downstream of its crossing by U.S. Highway 78," according to the April 28 letter to the EPD. The waste water would be pumped from the Rocky Branch plant along Hog Mountain Road much of the way to the Apalachee.

Expansion of the Rocky Branch plant to 4.0 MGD is contrary to the recommendation of Jordan Jones & Goulding (JJG). In the March 2004 Draft Report Wastewater System Master Plan, JJG recommended the following:

* Construction of a new Middle Oconee Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) by 2012 that discharges treated flow to the Middle Oconee River. The initial capacity of the plant would be 2.0 MGD, with an expansion to 4.5 MGD by 2017.

* Expand the existing Calls Creek Water Pollution Control Plan to 1.0 MGD in 2009. When this capacity is exceeded around 2012 and the Middle Oconee WPCP is operating, Calls Creek would be decommissioned.

* Expand the Rocky Branch LAS to 0.9 MGD in 2008. By 2015, flows to Rocky Branch would exceed this capacity. At this time, it should be decommissioned or retained as a source of reclaimed water for secondary use in the surrounding area.

In February 2005, JJG released the Final Report Utility Department Long Range Wastewater Strategies. It recommended the following:

* Construction of a new Middle Oconee Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) by 2012 that discharges treated flow to the Middle Oconee River. The initial capacity of the plant would be 2.0 MGD (million gallons per day), with an expansion to 4.5 MGD by 2017.

* Expand the existing Calls Creek Water Pollution Control Plan to 1.0 MGD in 2009. When this capacity is exceeded around 2012 and the Middle Oconee WPCP is operating, Calls Creek would be decommissioned.

* Expand the Rocky Branch LAS to 1.0 MGD in 2008. Continue operation of this plant through 2025. Possibly decommission the Land Application System LAS portion of the facility when other capacity is available.

In a story in The Oconee Enterprise of Sept. 21, 2006, Gary Dodd, Oconee County Utility Department Director, said:

"One suggestion by our consultants was the phasing out of existing plants like Calls Creek. It was not acceptable because EPD will not allow any additional loading on the Middle Oconee."

Assistant Utility Department Director Chris Thomas, in an e-mail message he sent me on March 24 of this year, said:

"...(W)e will continue to pursue a regional wastewater plant on the Oconee River that will handle the needs of Oconee and Athens."

In that same message, Mr. Thomas acknowledged that the Antidegradation Review prepared by PPI for the County does indicate that the Rocky Branch plant could be expanded to 4.0 MGD of discharge. Mr. Thomas added:

"As far as we are aware it (the Review) does not mention that Barber Creek would be capable of receiving an additional 3 MGD of effluent and we have not requested a waste load allocation for the additional 3 MGD."

In late 2003, just before the JJG draft Master Plan was released, the EPD granted Oconee County WLAs of 0.67 MGD, 1.0 MGD and 2.0 MGD for Calls Creek and 1.0 MGD and 2.0 MGD for the Middle Oconee River. All allocations were valid until December 16, 2004. The Calls Creek plant was upgraded in 2004 and currently has a permit to discharge 0.67 MGD of treated water into Calls Creek.

In July of 2004, Oconee County sought WLAs of 2.0 MGD and 4.5 MGD for the Middle Oconee River. On June 15, 2005, the EPD wrote to the County, rejecting the requests. The letter states:

"Water Quality modeling results show that there is no available assimilative capacity for oxygen demanding constituents in the Middle Oconee and Oconee Rivers downstream of the proposed discharge. The results of the WLA indicate that a WLA cannot be granted to this new facility in the Middle Oconee River at this time."

Both the Middle Oconee River and the Oconee River border Oconee County. David Bullard of the EPD has indicated (in an email message of late September that was forwarded to me) that Oconee County’s second request was denied "because the Athens facilities have been allocated the permittable assimilative capacity in this section of the river."

If the EPD grants the request for a hearing on Oconee County’s request for a permit to begin discharging treated wastewater into Barber Creek, we can ask for an explanation of the on-again off-again WLAs for the Middle Oconee. We also should be able to get an answer on how much more treated sewage water the EPD believes Barber Creek can handle.

Barrow County has been granted a permit to discharge 1.5 MGD of treated wastewater into Barber Creek from a plant it is building in Statham.

The WLA for the Apalachee was granted to Oconee County on June 14, 2006, though this has not been discussed openly. I knew that a request had been made because of an open records request made regarding the Rocky Branch facility late last year.

I asked Chris Thomas of the County Utility Department on September 23, 2006, if the state had responded to the County’s request for a waste load allocation. He indicated three days later he would "look into it" for me. On September 29, he wrote back saying I could get a copy of the state’s response if I came to the Utility Department office to pay for the copying ($0.50). I did so a few days later.

In fact, I should have been given this document in response to an open records request I filed with the County for Mr. Dodd on August 11, 2006. In that letter, I wrote:

"Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Law (O.C.G.A § 50-18-70 et seq.) (the "Law"), you are hereby requested to make available for review and copying all files, records and other documents in your possessions that refer, reflect or relate to the County’s request for a permit to discharge wastewater from the Rocky Branch Waste Treatment Plant into Barber Creek and that were produced after February 24, 2006."

Clearly the WLA for the Apalachee is related to the request for the Barber Creek permit. The documents even say that. Clearly, County officials are not interested in helping citizens understand all the options being considered.

Let’s hope the EPD grants the request for a hearing.