06/11/2026
*๐๐๐๐ (๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ด๐ถ๐ฎ ๐๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐) ๐จ๐๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ท๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐จ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐*
๐พ๐ก๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ง ๐๐ง๐ค๐๐๐๐ฉ๐จ - the name is a little misleading, but "clean water" refers to all projects related to sanitary sewer/wastewater.
1. Sanitary Sewer Collection System Rehab - the first project is focused on our North/Northwest Sewer Basin. This area is everything on the west side of 515 from north of Philadelphia Road down to and including the Hospital, and also includes the east side of 515 starting north of Philadelphia Road down to and including the QT Gas Station on Hazel Mosely/Camp Road. Main Street is the dividing line between this basin and the next one to the east. This project involves cleaning & televising the gravity sewer main in Zone 1 of this basin, cleaning & inspecting all sewer manholes, and then fixing the problems identified during televising and inspections. The cleaning & televising work, as well as the manhole inspection work, is complete, and some rehab work that was identified during televising that could not wait was taken care of early on. What remains are the gravity sewer mains that were identified as needing CIPP (cured in place pipe) lining and there are still manholes remaining to be rehabbed. Installing SCADA at our sewer lift stations is also included in this work, and the contractor has these units on order. The original project budget for this work was $1.5M dollars, and the awarded contract to Inliner was a total of $1,630,959.00. Council agreed to use 2026 SPLOST for anything over the $1.5M budget. As it turns out, we are underbudget for this 1st zone, and have released another 59,000 LF of pipe to be cleaned and televised - moving into the next area that needs to be done.
2. Master Sewer Lift Station and upgraded gravity sewer and force main - this project will allow us to decommission two of our oldest, beyond their useful life sewer lift stations; both of which are undersized and by Town Creek. The City owns property on Mineral Springs Rd N and the new station is in the process of being built there. The project budget for this one is $3M dollars - UWS, Inc was the awarded contractor with a low bid of $2,398,719.30. As mentioned at last week's Council meeting, the new gravity main coming to the station and the new force main leaving the station were fully designed to be in the right of way; however field conditions have changed the design a bit and the gravity sewer will be constructed within one of the travel lanes now. The County has approved the right of way use permit for this design change, and in the coming weeks the contractor will start construction of these mains to take advantage of no school traffic.
*Both of the Clean Water projects are critical to identifying I&I (inflow and infiltration) within the collections system - this is groundwater that enters the sanitary sewer collection system, through the manholes, through cracks/breaks in your gravity main, etc. It takes away the available capacity from the treatment plant, as well as throughout the collection system, which can result in overflows, spills, etc. The entire collections system throughout the City needs to be cleaned and televised - this project was our starting point because of the development already approved within this zone.
๐ฟ๐ง๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ง ๐๐ง๐ค๐๐๐๐ฉ๐จ - these are projects that are specific to potable water, whether it be the treatment plant, within the distribution system, or improving water supply.
1. Water Treatment Plant Rehab - this is not a capacity enhancement project, but rather a much-needed project to redo the electrical components of the plant, replace valves within the plant, and includes replacing the filter underdrains and filter media. The City's budget for this project is $2M dollars, and you may recall hearing at previous Council meetings that the original bids came in significantly higher than our budget - more than 2X our budget. Our Engineer worked with the bidders to reduce the scope of work down to just below $2M dollars, which will allow the electrical upgrades, valve work, and the filter work - all must haves. There is also a contingency amount in that award which will allow us to do some other upgrades to the facility such as a new roof, new security fencing and cameras. Rehab Construction was the low bidder at a bid amount of $1,968,317.30. The electrical work is underway, but the filter work cannot be done during the summer as those are historically our highest demand months. That work will be done during the winter months.
2. Water Distribution System Upgrades - this project has a budget of $1.5M dollars, and we originally planned to use this money to strengthen an interconnect with one of the systems we purchase finished water from AND replace/upgrade the water main in one of the many neighborhoods that has aging, leaking infrastructure (plus didn't have appropriately sized water main to provide fire protection). Both of these projects have been designed, but we cannot do both projects with the amount of money we have available. In previous meetings, you may have heard us mention the Hurricane Helene Resiliency Program, which was introduced by GEFA after Hurricane Helene and is a program designed to build resiliency within your drinking water system and reduce risk. It is 100% a program designed to help communities be more protective of their existing customer base and to provide back up systems to keep the distribution system flowing in case of an emergency. Even though Pickens County was not one of the counties included in this program, we were encouraged by GEFA to apply for a project that would give us the ability to buy additional finished water. We were notified that we were included in the Draft Intended Use Plan sent to EPA for funding, and are simply waiting to hear a final decision on our application. If formally approved, we'll need this money to provide our local match.
*For those of you who have talked about the importance of constructing a reservoir, I don't disagree with you; however, remember that communities that do have reservoirs have larger water bodies available to fill those reservoirs. Long Swamp Creek is the City's permitted surface water withdrawal point to send RAW water to the treatment plant for processing into finished, clean, drinking water. We have a permit that allows us to withdraw up to a maximum amount each day, as long as the creek is flowing at a certain velocity or higher. You may hear this being referred to as "meeting our 7Q10", and that value is different depending on the month we're in. What EPD is really requiring is that the amount we withdraw remains protective of all downstream users - the folks who have withdrawal permits of their own further down the line, as well as the aquatic and biologic life in the creek. Long Swamp Creek is simply not an adequate source of water to fill a reservoir.
Also discussed at the June Council meeting is a project that our on-demand utility contractor is constructing in the Twin Mountain Lakes area - this is replacing old 2" main serving lots of people with new 6" water main that will allow this area to have fire protection. This is another neighborhood where we've had numerous leaks and problems. This is a $500,000.00 project (approximately) and we're using a combination of 2020 SPLOST dollars and 2026 SPLOST dollars. This should be ready for pressure testing, chlorination and bac-t testing very soon and then we'll certify it through EPD and get everyone tied over to the new main.
Thanks for reading.
