New sewage plant considered wave of the future

Posted 7:50AM on Thursday 29th August 2002 ( 22 years ago )

DULUTH - The Cauley Creek Water Reclamation Facility does such a good job cleaning sewage that its builder filled a swimming pool with the discharge. A 14-inch rainbow trout named Fred lives in recycled water that circulates inside its tank at the sewage treatment plant in north Fulton County. The $29 million facility, considered to represent the wave of the future in Georgia's treatment of wastewater, officially opened Wednesday. ``You'll see a lot more of this. What it means is we have to be a lot more creative in how we use the water we have,'' said Jim Kundell, an environmental policy professor at the University of Georgia. The Cauley Creek plant uses a super-fine filter process called an ultra-filtration membrane. The sewage is drawn through filters so small that they block single-cell organisms. Plant operators say the resulting discharge is almost clean enough to drink. ``I'm here in recognition of what the cutting edge is that has to spread across our state if we are to remain prosperous,'' Gov. Roy Barnes said Wednesday. The effluent also is being used to water the Atlanta Athletic Club, site of the 2001 PGA Championship. Fulton County is working out similar deals with St. Ives Country Club, River Farm subdivision and Perimeter Church, said Tim Equels of the county's Department of Public Works. Cauley Creek's capacity is 2.5 million gallons a day, with the ability to expand to 5 million gallons. It's a mere drop in North Fulton's sewage woes, where growth has topped out two plants that process 31 million gallons of sewage a day. Besides curbing water pollution, the plant also attempts to cut down on visual pollution. From the outside, it looks like an old red barn on 130 acres of pasture land. ``Whatever works,'' Hallum said. ``It's set up to not cause any problems and to be a good neighbor.'' Dave Upton, one of the plant's neighbors and an outspoken critic, admitted that the site ``has not been as bad as we feared it might be.'' Upton said there haven't been any smell or noise complaints yet, but that ``it's still far too early to tell.'' And he still believes sewage treatment plants belong in industrial settings, even if they are designed to fit in with the community. The plant replaced an open cow pasture rolling down to the river. Cauley Creek is owned by a private company. Fulton County has a 10-year contract to pay Cauley Creek Water Reclamation $3.33 per 1,000 gallons of sewage treated. At capacity, the cost is about $8,325 a day.

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