Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority board members heard updates on plans to use property at the Carmeuse mines for a potential water source — while also offering their respects to late Georgia House Speaker David Ralston — when meeting Monday, Nov. 28.
Of Ralston, who passed away Nov. 16, board chairman Mike Gibbs said, “He’s been a good friend of this water authority” and several of its members.
“We lost our good friend,” Gibbs continued. “It will be a long time, if ever, that this county sees what we got from him. We wish the family well. It’s going to be tough on them.”
Plans to drill two test wells to determine if water can be successfully drawn from two underground water veins on Carmeuse property in the Talona area are moving along, confirmed Gary McVey water authority director.
In July, McVey told board members that there are two water veins near the limestone mines, one near the mine on Talona Road and another one north of the mine.
At the November meeting, McVey told board members Gibbs, Hubert Parker, Tony Whitaker and Don Callihan that applications for two test wells have been made to the EPD (Environmental Protection Division). Petrologic Solutions, a contracted company out of Douglasville, is handling the application process.
“We are currently awaiting approval from the EPD. Petrologic Solutions has been in very close contact with (them), going back and forth talking about this,” said McVey. “We’re expecting to get approval for those (test wells).”
McVey said the company is also in discussion with two qualified well drillers for the project.
“They’re going to make a recommendation as to which driller is better suited,” he added. “Once that determination is made, they’re going to create a scope of work of what we’re looking for to get a quote on the wells.”
McVey said Carmeuse already has to have groundwater pumped out of the mines, using the Petrologic company.
“They seem to think we can get the million and a half (gallons) we’re looking for on the first site,” said McVey in July.
The groundwater gets contaminated if it reaches the mine, but, if it was pumped from the water vein before then, it could go directly into the water system with only a chlorine fluoride treatment, he noted.
McVey said the company is looking to have the first test well drilled before the end of the year, but he thinks it could be early next year before the process actually starts.
In other news ...
﹣ McVey said the water authority’s conversion to digitally-read water meters will continue with 960 recently received meters and transmitters expected to be installed starting in January.
Supply chain issues have caused serious delays in the switchover from manually-read to digitally-read meters, but the recently received equipment should be enough for three more routes, said McVey. All of Coosawattee River Resort is now on the digital AMI system, he noted.
“The old meters are continuing to die at a very rapid pace, which is causing us some issues, but, since we’ve got all of Coosawattee done on the new system, it’s really helping us out,” said McVey.
﹣ Board members approved a $52,200 expense for adding an 85-foot pole with a poured concrete base at the New Hope Water tank site. McVey said the pole is needed to elevate an antenna used to collect data for the digital meter system.
“The other three data collectors are fine. There won’t be any additional charges on those, and there’s no need to elevate them any more. This one, because of the topography, we’re going to need to elevate it,” he added.