Becoming More Like Gwinnett County every day

Citizens for Oconee's Future, Inc.
P. O. Box 1301
Watkinsville, GA 30677

Following is the text of a message from Lee Becker, Friends of Barber Creek concerning sewage spills from facilities currently operated by Oconee County. Please put the DEC. 12 hearing on your calendars and plan to attend and speak out on this issue. You can be sure that as the Board of Commissioners continues its policy of promoting more development in the County there will be more sewage to be treated, more garbage to be buried, more traffic to be controlled, more children to be educated and more etc. I just received an e mail from a concerned citizen who suggested the new Oconee County motto should be "Becoming more like Gwinnett each day".

Charles Baugh, President

Dear Friends:

Oconee County has had at least five malfunctions or other problems with its two sewage treatment plants since February of 2003 that were serious enough to require notification of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD).

In one case, involving the Calls Creek plant in Watkinsville, the problem caused die offs in the creek and strong chemical odors. In another case, at the county's only other sewage treatment plant, on Rocky Branch road, standing sewage was removed from a ditch leading to a creek that feeds to Barber Creek, but 200-300 gallons of sewage may have entered the creek before the sewage was removed from the ditch.

For the most part, the five problems resulted from routine failures at plants that process sewage. The amount of contamination was relatively small. The cases illustrate, nonetheless, a simple point. Sewage treatment plants sometimes fail. When they fail, something happens.

This fact underscores the importance of the public hearing at 7 p.m. on December 12 at the Oconee County Civic Center. The hearing will give citizens a chance to voice concerns about safeguards at the Rocky Branch plant, which is slated for expansion. The County is seeking a permit to legally discharge treated sewage water from the expanded plant into Barber Creek.

To learn more about the record of performance of the Rocky Branch and Calls Creek plants, go to my blog at http://www.oconeecountyobservations.blogspot.com/ .

Please plan to attend the December 12 hearing.

Lee

Lee Becker

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