Fulton BOC Approves $28M Wastewater Diversion Line Project

ROSWELL, GA — The Fulton County Commission on Wednesday approved a $28.3 million contract to design and construct a wastewater diversion line and pump station in the northern part of the county.

The contract with John D. Stephens will allow up to 10 million gallons of wastewater per day to be diverted from the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Roswell to Cobb County’s R. L. Sutton Water Reclamation Facility in Smyrna.

Fulton County has previously participated in financing the capital improvements at the R. L. Sutton
facility to allow use of the facility to treat wastewater originating in Fulton County. This diversion line
project will allow Fulton County to utilize this previously paid for treatment capacity.

Cobb County staff has been involved in the development of the proposed diversion line and support the plans to redirect up to 10 million gallons to their facility.

This diversion is necessary to ensure the Big Creek facility in Roswell to meet Environmental Protection Division requirements, especially during the upcoming expansion project.

The Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility serves the largest service area, and receives the largest amount of wastewater flow of all the reclamation facilities in the county's northern service area outside the city of Atlanta. According to the county's website, the service area is about 70 square miles and includes Roswell, Alpharetta, portions of Milton and areas of Cobb and DeKalb counties.

The facility was originally constructed at its current location in 1969 with a treatment capacity of 0.75 millions of gallons per day. Several upgrades and expansions have been completed on the facility to its current permitted treatment capacity of 24 MGD.

The project will upgrade and expand the facility from 24 to 38 million gallons per day to meet the projected wastewater treatment demands from future growth and eliminate odors from the facility. The project is expected to be Fulton County's largest public works project in the next 50 years.

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