Employees of the Cartecay Water Treatment Plant, the facility responsible for producing the Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority’s drinking water supply, are proud to have received the another commendation from the Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP).
The GAWP Platinum Award marks the 12th year in which the local water plant has had no violations and has complied consistently with Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.
“The management staff at the water treatment plant work hard every day to ensure that our community has clean and safe drinking water. This award is a testament to their dedication and hard work as it represents many years of water treatment without a single violation,” said water authority director Gary McVey. “I am very proud of the job that our treatment staff does day in and day out and am proud that they are getting the recognition they deserve for their efforts.”
Gary Nix, the plant’s superintendent, described some of the sample testing procedures that are done regularly at the treatment facility.
“We are a certified lab and we do manual testing every hour. We also have constant electronic SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) tests that constantly report the results.
“We do manual testing where an operator physically puts his hands on the samples and runs them every hour,” Nix said. “We test for things like turbidity, chlorine and pH. We measure flows constantly and record those every hour. We also have safety devices that would shut the plant down before we would ever have any kind of turbidity violation.”
Georgia water plants are first recognized for their Safe Drinking Water Act compliance with the GAWP Gold Award. Those that receive that commendation for five years straight are given Platinum Awards thereafter. If any type of violation happens at a plant, it cannot receive an award and the five-year gold process starts again for any subsequent commendations that are received.
“Some of the things that would be considered is if you break your flow permits or you go over any kind of MCL (maximum contaminant level). That would be a violation. Not getting your samples on time, just various things,” said Nix.
The Victory Circle plant is permitted to withdraw 4 million gallons a day from the Cartecay River and must maintain a monthly withdrawal average of no more than .45 million gallons daily from the Ellijay River.
“On a daily basis, we (withdraw) anywhere from 2.6 to 3 million gallons,” Nix said. “When I first came here 17 years ago, we were pushing 4 million gallons per day and needing more. Several years ago, we went through that real bad drought and everybody had to do a 10 percent reduction.
“Some of the industries and people found ways to save water, so we’re actually at a little less than what we were 17 years ago.”
The plant’s eight-person staff takes its responsibility of providing water to the local community seriously, Nix confirmed.
“It’s for the Ellijay-Gilmer County community. The water plant belongs to them and we really strive to have the best water possible,” he said. “After the COVID-19 (pandemic) is over, we encourage people who want to see their water plant to call us and set up a time and we will give them a tour.”