The Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority Board of Directors voted to limit the amount of septic tank waste that can be accepted by the local wastewater treatment plant during the board’s first meeting of the year Monday, Jan. 27.
Per those revisions, the plant will now only accept septage collected in Gilmer County and the daily amount for each individual hauler is limited to 3,000 gallons, confirmed water authority director Gary McVey.
“We were taking septage from companies that pump a tri-state area of Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. We’ve now restricted it to just Gilmer County. No outside county can come in. That’s the way it was before we opened it up and we’ve gone back to that,” he added.
“It’s not necessarily (limited to just) companies located in Gilmer County, as long as they come here and pump. These companies have a manifest (that shows where they pump septic tanks).”
McVey said the plant was previously accepting as high as 50,000 gallons of septage daily, not including leachate (dumpsite runoff) the plant also accepts for processing. That has contributed to an outdoor odor issue, about which the water authority has received complaints.
“We’ve had complaints and we’re very aware of it. We apologize for all inconvenience from the odor and this was part of our efforts to reduce some of those odors coming from our plant. I think people will be pleased with what we’ve done the last couple of weeks,” McVey noted.
No restrictions were put on the amount of leachate that can be accepted at the plant, he added.
Not only did the large amount of septage being processed contribute to odor issues in the vicinity of the treatment plant on Merk Davis Road, it also limited the general capabilities of the plant, McVey explained.
“It was affecting our treatment (capabilities), they were bringing so much of it. Septic (material) is dead and it’s very high in BOD (biological oxygen demand). It takes a lot of air that takes a lot of our ability away from what we need to be treating,” he explained.
A failed aerator that’s part of a digester — a piece of processing equipment at the plant — has been repaired and reinstalled as another step toward reducing unpleasant odors from the plant, McVey noted.
“With a wastewater plant, you can’t make one change and expect 15 minutes later for it to change. Sometimes it takes weeks for things to work themselves out. We started this (limiting septage intake) before the board made a motion to change that policy. In the last couple of weeks, I think we’ve really got a handle on it,” he added.
In other news ...
McVey gave updates on several current water authority projects headed into 2020.
The final length of piping for the water system interconnection project along Yukon Road was scheduled to be completed the week of Jan. 27, along with filling, flushing, pressure testing and disinfection of the new pipeline.
The board of commissioners will vote on a rezoning request for the future site of a 325,000-gallon tank that will service that area.
McVey said the zoning request change from agricultural to public use has already been approved by county planning and zoning and will be voted on by the BOC at a Feb. 13 meeting.
The design for a bolted steel tank that will replace an existing welded steel tank that serviced the Old Tails Creek area is awaiting EPD approval.
Because of a wait period that will proceed the new tank construction, a second three-month time extension will be needed from GEFA (Georgia Environmental Finance Authority) to complete the project, expected to be finished by mid to late June.
Surveying for the extension of water system service to the Round Top/Sunlight Road area is about 10 percent complete, McVey said.
Once the engineering design for the extension project is complete, materials will be purchased so that construction on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)-funded project can begin.