CORNELIA - The City of Cornelia is proceeding with emergency dredging of its drinking water reservoir off Camp Creek Road.
That's because the average depth throughout the reservoir is only a couple of feet, down from the original depth of 16 feet.
The city commission has approved expending emergency funds to get a company to come in and dredge the first 200 feet from the dam, near the intake area.
"Our water is our lifeline," said City Manager Donald Anderson.
Dredging the current lake wasn't planned at this time, but instead was expected to occur later.
"Part of our water master plan that we started about five years ago was to build the new water plant - which is long overdue," Anderson said. "Our existing water plant is almost 80 years old."
Also included in the master plan was construction of a new reservoir for added water storage.
Once the new reservoir was in place, city leaders planned to dredge the existing lake to get it back to its late-1960s design, Anderson said.
"Our plans have been delayed for various reasons - EPD, design issues - so that has put our dredging project back to a point where we have an average depth of two feet of water throughout our entire reservoir, based on a recent sediment survey," Anderson said.
While the city waits for approval from EPD to proceed with work on the new reservoir, Cornelia leaders are going to begin dredging the existing 87.84-acre lake.
"But, that's going to take 60 to 90 days to get bid documents together, bid the project, and get a contract," Anderson said.
That's why the emergency measures were taken to get work started as soon as possible.
The city commission authorized River Sand Inc. to perform the emergency dredging around the intake at a cost not to exceed $200,000. Funding will come from the city's renewal and extension fund.
"All reservoirs are designed for a certain amount of storage - sediment storage as well as drinking water storage," the city's engineer, Marty Boyd of Carter & Sloope, told commissioners during their work session. "That sediment storage is completely full."
Anderson said the city simply can't wait 60 to 90 days to dredge or there might not be sufficient water supply for the remainder of the dry season.
A turbidity screen will be placed around the intake to protect the quality of water entering the treatment plant.
"Actually it may make the water cleaner going into the plant," Anderson said.
