The Hard Labor Creek Reservoir Management Board has scaled back plans for the 16 million gallons per day (mgd) water treatment plant it has under construction on the reservoir in Walton County because of the anticipated low need for water from the plant.
The plans had called for installation of two 8 mgd pumps at the plant, but the Board agreed at its late October meeting to add a 4 mpd pump to handle anticipated low night-time peak demand of only two million gallons of treated water.
Walton County Board of Commissioners Chair David Thompson told the Management Board, which includes three Oconee County representatives, that Walton County’s current peak day demand for treated water is 7.1 mgd.
The county currently receives 6.25 mgd of treated water from Newton County’s Cornish Creek Water Treatment Facility and is connected to Gwinnett County’s water treatment system, from which it receives water when the need exceeds 6.25 mgd, according to Jim Sunta, program manager for the water treatment plant construction.
Thompson told the Board at the Oct. 23 meeting that his negotiations to get Newton County to “buy back” the water Newton County is contracted to sell to Walton County had “hit a brick wall.”
Thompson had told the Management Board at its meeting in early September that his plans to sell the water from the treatment plant to a company proposing data centers in the Social Circle area had been unsuccessful, leaving a lack of demand for the water and $7.5 million deficit in funding for the plant.
Oconee County is a partner with Walton County on the regional reservoir and has committed $12 million to the $141.5 million water treatment plant.
The Management Board also is going forward with plans to expand the reservoir’s capacity via an intake facility on the Apalachee River, and blasting of rock in the river’s channel across from North High Shoals is anticipated for December of this year.
New Pump
Thompson told the Management Board and the Walton County Water and Sewer Authority at the Oct. 23 meeting that the treatment plant, with the revised plans, is being “built for the future, not for present day use.”
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| Thompson 10/23/2026 |
Thompson offered that summary after a lengthy discussion by the Management Board and by the Water and Sewer Authority of the proposal to purchase and install a 4 mgd pump at the plant.
The Management Board is advisory to the Water and Sewer Authority, which has final authority on what is done with the reservoir, and the Advisory Board takes lead in the discussion before the Water and Sewer Authority votes.
Oconee County Commissioner Mark Saxon chairs the Hard Labor Creek Management Board, and Thompson is one of four Walton County members of that Board.
Oconee County is represented on the Management Board by Saxon, Oconee County Commissioner Chuck Horton, and Oconee County Manager Justin Kirouac.
At the meeting in the Walton County Historic Courthouse in Monroe on Oct. 23, Project Manager Jimmy Parker began the discussion by saying he was asking the Management Board and Authority to designate up to $317,641 from its project contingency fund to purchase and install a 4 mgd pump “to allow the plant to operate during its initial stages, function properly.”
The original plans called for the installation of two 8 mgd pumps, with a third held in storage as a backup.
“We didn't feel it was good...to try to run that 8 MGD pump at low. It's going to end up burning something up,” Parker said.
Discussion That Followed
When Parker has finished his overview, Oconee County Commissioner Horton asked him to “just go back over the reasons for the change," That opened up the discussion that led to Thompson’s statement that going forward with the water treatment plant is not justified by current demand for water.
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| Parker 10/23/2026 |
“So the plant was set up with three 8 mgd pumps,” Parker told Commissioner Horton. So two would run at a time for a total of 16, and they would alternate. So you've got two running back up.”
“Initially, with some decreased demand projections on the Walton side, we don't anticipate running up to 8 mgd. So we can't run those pumps in parallel like they were designed.”
“So this proposal is to have a 4 mgd pump to handle low flow demands initially,” he said.
“Our system,” Thompson added, “runs about 6 million average per day. “Its peak is at seven point something.” (Sunta said in an email message on Nov. 11 that the peak is 7.1 mgd. Sunta is Senior Process Engineer at Precision Planning Inc., where Parker is Executive Vice President.)
“The negotiations with Newton County and selling them back water at Cornish Creek has hit a brick wall,” Thompson continued. “So to keep our water at Cornish Creek and run this plant, it was determined that we need a lower...”
“You need the ability to run at a lower volume,” Parker inserted.
“... lower volume,” Thompson continued. “And we're the only ones using the water right now.”
Oconee County is a responsible for 28.8 percent of the costs of the Walton County project and entitled to that same percentage of the water, but it will have to construct transmission lines to receive that water.
Oconee County has decided instead to fund expansion of the treatment plant at the Bear Creek Reservoir in Jackson County, where it is a partner. Oconee County currently receives its water via existing transmission lines from that plant.
“So to operate the plant and keep it running,” Thompson continued, “we can run it at this four million and still use Cornish Creek and utilize this new plant too.”
Another Horton Explains
“So with the design, the firm capacity means you have an extra pump, and with three eights, your design capacity is 16, with an extra (spare) eight mgd pump,” Jay Horton, lead engineer for treatment plant design and construction with Jacobs Engineering, said.
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| Jay Horton With Goss On Left 10/23/2026 |
“When we replace that four, you have a 12 mgd capacity because you can take one eight out, that's your extra pump, and the eight and the four can run together,” he continued. “As Jimmy was mentioning, the necessity for the jockey pump (the 4 mgd pump) is because overnight lows are now projected to be as low as two.”
“And if you were to take your 8 mgd pump and run it at two, you'd develop some maintenance bills. This pump is now set up to run at your overnight lows, and you can continuously run at any flow you need, from two mgd all the way up to 12 or 16.”
Thompson said the original plans was to build a 16 mgd plant, but “when the bids started coming in, we dropped it down to 12.” (That decision was made in October of 2023.)
“And then through the process,” he continued, “the contractor come back to us and he could increase it back to 16 with that $7.5 million that we made.”
Thompson told the Management Board in September that his efforts to obtain $7.5 million from a company wanting water from the reservoir for an additional data center in Social Circle had been unsuccessful.
“It's built for the future, not for present day use, is the plan,” Thompson said at the Oct. 23 meeting in summarizing current plans for the treatment plant.
Extra Pump
Laurie Hawks of the Water and Sewer Authority asked about returning the unneeded 8 mgd pump.
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| October Aerial View Of Treatment Plant |
“We looked into returning it,” Jay Horton said. “It's a little far past the manufacturing process, so then we'll have the four and the two eights installed and a spare unit.”
“But ultimately, the 4 mgd peak has to be put in because we want to keep the plant running,” Saxon said. “We don't want to shut the plant down, cut back on. With the four, we can keep it running all the time.”
The Management Board voted to authorize Archer Western to purchase and “install alternate 4 mgd high service jockey pump for initial low flow conditions in the amount not to exceed $317,641.”
The Water and Sewer Authority approved the same motion.
Apalachee Intake Facility
Parker told the Management Board and Water and Sewer Authority that they had spent $977,626 in July, September, and October months for the intake facility being built on the Walton County side of the Apalachee River.
At present, there is no timetable for use of the intake. It is being built to retain the state and federal permits for use of the water from the river at some point in the future to increase the capacity of the existing reservoir.
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| Saxon 10/23/2026 |
When demand for water exceeds the capacity of the Hard Labor Creek drainage area to keep the reservoir at needed levels, water will be pumped from the Apalachee River to replenish the reservoir.
Total cost of this phase 1 of the project is budgeted at $9.7 million, with just less than $7 million for actual construction and the remainder for project management and construction administration services. Completion date for the intake is expected to be August of 2027.
“Everything's in the early stages, but everything's progressing,” Parker said in offering a summary of the project.
“Is there any public outreach going on?” Hawks from the Water and Sewer Authority asked.
“Well, I would say historically, especially when the project was in its early years, there was extensive public outreach in the New High Shoals area,” Parker said. “We meet with the city council, citizens.”
Rob Goss, a Construction Engineer with Precision Planning, said members of the construction team will be contacting neighbors and obtaining the needed permits from the Fire Marshall “for each blast, so that county officials are notified on the emergency response side.”
Goss said there is “a working a rock quarry right next door, so I mean, they're pretty much used to the sound of it.”
Initiation of the rock blasting in the river channel is expected in December, according to the agenda Parker prepared for the meeting
Video
The video below is of the entire Oct. 23 meeting of the Hard Labor Creek Management Board.
Discussion of the revised plans for the pumps in the water treatment plant begins at 16:09 in the video
Discussion of the Apalachee River intake facility begins at 32:32 I the video.
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