Wastewater treatment upgrades nearing completion, but construction causing issues measuring intake

The Rockmart City Council approved a pause in allowing for additional permits to be allowed for septic companies seeking to drop off their stinky loads at the wastewater treatment plant – at least until work is completed on upgrades at the facility.

Council members approved the measure unanimously as they gave City Manager Stacey Smith the OK to go ahead with her plan to undertake a temporary moratorium on providing new permits to area septic companies seeking a place to pump out their trucks from customers they’re servicing.

She explained the wastewater treatment plant is undergoing a $1.5 million upgrade, adding a new digester to increase capacity and replace bar screens at the plant. The city is funding the improvements via a Georgia Environmental Finance Authority loan, an Appalachian Regional Commission grant, and at least $230,000 in money from the city before all is said and done with the project.

The problem – as it has been for many businesses and governments alike who are trying to get work done lately – is delays in supplies of parts to complete the work.

Construction crews on site are 75% complete with the upgrade work, Smith said, but that final round of work is waiting on parts to be delivered. However as they wait, equipment they need to finish work is getting in the way of other services they offer local businesses who need to dispose of their wastewater from outside of the city’s sewer system.

She explained to the council and in follow-up conversation that thus far only a pair of septic companies are bringing their trucks into the facility for processing, and they only bring in waste from residents in Polk County.

The need for the moratorium arose when operators from outside of the county sought to get permitted for pumping into the Rockmart wastewater treatment plant.

“In the middle of the upgrade, its difficult to let new businesses bring the waste because of the construction and equipment,” Smith said. “That really leaves no area for our employees to measure the amount of waste being pumped and processed, so this is a necessary pause of allowing more businesses to come in until we can get back to normal operations at the wastewater treatment plant.”

Those currently permitted are being allowed to continue, but officials at the wastewater plant reported back to the city additional requests for permits were sought, but can’t be fulfilled at this time because of the construction ongoing to expand the plant operations.

Smith added that the moratorium doesn’t mean the city won’t address the issue in the future, but at least until work is finished on the new digester, they can’t handle the additional traffic of new septic waste being processed from outside sources. The upgrade will allow for the city to handle some additional capacity as well as be able to operate off of just a single digester if the need arises because of future repairs, but until then the pause is needed.

Smith said that she hopes that in the future the city will be able to lift the moratorium approved by the City Council, but said that officials at the plant in tandem with administration and the council will review the process after the work is completed and evaluate the next steps. 

The decision shouldn’t have any major impact on operations, since only a small percentage of the overall wastewater treated daily at the Rockmart plant is from septic tanks that are pumped locally. 

Administration does check to ensure that the septic systems are local, following up on reports provided by the haulers who bring it in to verify where the waste comes from on a quarterly basis. 

“We only allow waste from Polk County to be disposed of there,” Smith said. 

These are vital upgrades that are needed to ensure that water coming into the system goes back out as pure as it can be. A variety of equipment and processes and holding ponds take in water from sewage system to process before it is released back into Euharlee Creek. If not done properly, or if equipment breaks down that is vital to the process, the city faces fines and additional scrutiny from state and federal environmental regulators.