Oconee County Commissioners Being Asked To Spend Money On Calls Creek Expansion Beyond 1.5 Million Gallons Per Day

Oconee County Utility Department Director Wayne Haynie will ask the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday night to spend $13.5 million for an upgrade to its Calls Creek wastewater treatment plant, including at least $900,000 for expansion of the plant beyond the initial 1.5 million gallons per day of capacity.

The $900,000 is part of just less than $2 million the Utility Department asked Crowder Construction Company in March of last year to add to its estimated costs for the wastewater plant expansion.

At least some of those additional costs beyond the $900,000 also are related to expansion of the plant to 3 million gallons per day in capacity, according to documents Crowder gave the county.

The added initial construction costs for the plant upgrade to 3 million gallons per day are only part of the total amount needed for expansion of the Calls Creek plant beyond the proposed 1.5 million gallons per day in capacity.

The county would have to spend an undetermined amount to build other components of the expanded plant, to increase the capacity of the sewer lines feeding the plant, and to build a new sewer line for handling treated effluent for the larger plant, possibly down Calls Creek.

Expanding the plant also would bring additional raw sewage to Calls Creek, challenging the ability of the creek to assimilate that untreated waste in the event of a spill.

For more on this story, go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured: Design of new plant.

Note: An earlier version of this post used the figure $17.5 rather than $13.5 for the plant costs.