Members of the Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority board were updated on the progress of several current and upcoming system improvement projects during a brief board meeting Monday, Sept. 21.
At another board meeting held earlier this month, water authority director Gary McVey informed board members about a finding that could cause a section of rerouted water line near the ongoing Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) roundabout project at Old Highway 5 and Highway 382 to be dug up and rerouted again.
The water authority was contacted by GDOT and told that a portion of the rerouted line is in conflict with a box culvert on the east side of Old Highway 5, said McVey earlier this month.
“We’ve met a few times and were told the line was in the wrong place. It’s not the entire job. It’s a small portion of it on the south end of where that big box culvert was built,” he added.
McVey said it has since been determined that the GDOT contractor, C.W. Matthews, made an error in staking their work for the project and the water main that EGCWSA relocated was installed in accordance with plans approved by GDOT prior to construction. C.W. Matthews and GDOT are currently working on a solution to the issue, he added.
Material purchase orders should soon be issued for a water system extension project in the Roundtop/Sunlight Road area. That $1.9 million project is being funded, in part, with a $722,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA). Because of DCA requirements, individual contracts with the three vendors, which will supply pipe, hydrants and fittings and water meters for the project, had to be approved at the meeting. Normally, the DCA also requires a preconstruction meeting before project construction can start, but, because the water authority is doing the work and due to concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic, that requirement could be waived, McVey noted.
Construction on the Roundtop/Sunlight project is expected to start in October, he added.
Construction of a storage tank that will serve the Yukon/Clear Creek area is complete and the tank has been painted, McVey said. Some electrical work, as well as leak testing, still needs to be done before the tank can be put into service. The project is expected to be finished by the end of October.
Engineering designs for rehab and repair of a sewer trunk line in downtown Ellijay are expected to begin soon, following a delay.
Engineering for the project was already approved by board members, but, because of heavy workloads, it took a couple of months for surveying to be done, McVey noted.
The project will update approximately 4,200 linear feet of sewer line, which extends from near the Amicalola Electric office on North Main Street to the bridge on River Street. The sewer line has severe ground water infiltration issues and the pipe is sagging and misaligned in several places, partially due to improper installation and the high water table in the area, noted McVey in July.
“Some of the pipe is made of clay. It’s an older pipeline and it’s just not in very good shape. It’s a terra cotta pipe. A lot of the old sewer lines in the city of Eliijay are terra cotta. (Now they’re made of) PVC,” he added.
In other news ...
Board members approved a new industrial pretreatment permit for the local Pilgrim’s poultry plant. The new permit, which runs from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2025, is in accordance with all terms and conditions of the water authority’s sewer use ordinance, which has been adopted by the county and the cities of Ellijay and East Ellijay, McVey noted.
“The authority, and even the city before the authority was formed, had always issued Pilgrim’s, or Gold Kist at the time, pretreatment permits. These permits are good for five years. This permit gives them their limits on some of their discharge and it puts a surcharge on different (things) if they go past those limits,” he added.