New Projects Move Big Creek Water Plant Closer To Completion

ROSWELL, GA — The Fulton County Board of Commissioners passed two items in their July 10 session aimed at keeping the new Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility expansion project moving.

The items passed, a $16.9 million site preparation construction project and $7.56 million for construction management services, are crucial to the overall goal of expanding Big Creek from its current 24 million gallons per day capacity to 38 MGD.

The Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility is located at 1030 Marietta Highway, Roswell, in north Fulton County, west of the Chattahoochee River in the Big Creek Basin.

Site preparation for this project includes some demolition, earth moving, utility relocation, access road preparation, and erosion control on the existing property to prepare the site for the expansion construction in early 2020.

Due to the size and complexity of this project, outside construction management services will be used on an as-needed basis with oversight by Fulton County Public Works personnel in monitoring the construction activity completed by the joint venture team of Archer-Western/Brown and Caldwell.

In addition to expanding to meet the needs of the northern portions of the county, the Big Creek expansion project will also address some common concerns with residents around the facility, namely odor, noise, and light issues. To address the odor, the new facility will be covered, and it is being built in an area further away from residents with additional trees being planted as a sound and light barrier.

Big Creek serves the largest service area and largest total flow of treatment facilities in north Fulton County. The service area is approximately 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 MGD. Several upgrades and expansions have been completed on the facility to its current permitted treatment capacity of 24 MGD. Fulton County is proceeding with plans to upgrade and expand the Big Creek WRF from 24 to 38 MGD to meet the projected wastewater treatment demands.

Upgrades in 1991 brought the plant to 24 MGD through the construction and addition of new headworks, influent screening and degritting, aeration chambers, secondary clarifiers, activated sludge handling and dewatering, sand filtration, and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. The UV System was upgraded in 2006.

Treated wastewater from the Big Creek WRF is discharged to the Chattahoochee River. Dewatered sludge is disposed offsite to a landfill.