Auburn considering reservoir project

TWO OTHER RESERVOIRS PROPOSED

If the Auburn project were to go forward, it would bring to three the number of potential new reservoirs in Barrow County.

Based on a 2009 study, the Barrow County Water & Sewerage Authority is studying sites for two proposed reservoirs to meet local drinking water needs for the next 50 years.

The WSA study, however, did not identify any potential reservoir sites inside or adjacent to Auburn, which due to its partial location in Gwinnett County and planned transportation improvements, is expected to grow quickly after the economy recovers.

The WSA study instead recommended that new reservoirs be built to the north at Rocky Creek and to the east in the Barber Creek basin near Statham. The study did recommend a new water line for Auburn.

Meanwhile, the city has become the county’s largest municipal water customer, currently purchasing about 400,000 gallons daily or up to 13 million gallons monthly.

That is twice the volume the city is required to purchase under a contract with the county, twice the volume purchased monthly by Winder, and about half the volume purchased by the WSA to serve customers in the unincorporated areas of the county. Until last summer, Auburn purchased the bulk of its water from Gwinnett County. But when that county’s wholesale water rate climbed to well over $3 per 1,000 gallons – it is now $4.11 – city officials turned instead to Barrow, where the wholesale water rate is $1.60 per 1,000 gallons.

The switch was made in June 2009, according to a Gwinnett County spokesman.

Then, two months later, the director of Barrow County’s water department told the board of commissioners that this county’s wholesale water rate is much too low.

In fact, director Myron Garrett said, the county’s cost of providing water wholesale to the cities and the WSA is twice what the county is charging them for the water.

Commissioners at the time expressed surprise and concern but took no action.

Chairman Danny Yearwood since has talked openly about raising the county’s rate, but contracts with the municipalities don’t expire for two more years.

Garrett warned in his August 2009 presentation that the “water transmission fund” for the county’s wholesale water operation was running out of money.

Then this month, CFO Rose Kisaalita announced the fund would not be able to meet about $400,000 of its annual debt obligation to the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority (UOBWA), which owns the Bear Creek Reservoir.

She said the money would have to come from the county’s reserve fund, which by the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30 is expected to drop to about $3.1 million.

For more on this story, see the July 21 edition of the Barrow Journal or click here to read the full story online when you subscribe to our new e-edition.