Politics & Government
Oconee County Paid Hauler To Dispose Of Solid Waste From Sewer Plant After The Plant Stopped Producing Solid Waste
The separation of financial records of the Utility Department from the rest of the county seems to have contributed to the problem.
Even though the Oconee County Calls Creek wastewater plant stopped producing solids at least a year ago, the county continued to pay a company for hauling those solids to a landfill through at least the end of April of this year, according to financial records of the county’s Utility Department.
Solids, also referred to as sludge, are removed from the raw sewage in a wastewater plant as part of the treatment process and then disposed of, generally at a landfill.
Oconee County stopped hauling solids to the landfill from its Calls Creek wastewater treatment plant in late 2013, an examination of invoices and waste manifests from the Utility Department indicates.
Yet on April 30, according to the ledger of the Utility Department, the county paid $571.29 to Roll Off Systems, 1100 B. Garrett Drive, on the far western end of the county, for “sludge disposal.”
Because of the separation of the financial records of the Utility Department from those for the rest of the county, administrators seem to have missed this key indicator of problems at the Calls Creek plant.
For more on this story, go to Oconee County Observations.
Pictured: Sign board for Utility Department at Government Annex