Published: September 23, 2008 06:25 pm      

Chatsworth approves water purchase

By Mark Millican

markmillican@daltoncitizen.com



CHATSWORTH — The Water Works Commission and the City Council finalized an agreement Monday evening for the purchase of 400,000 gallons of water per day from the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority in Watkinsville, a town just outside of Athens. The city will pay $1.40 per 1,000 gallons at 2008 prices, or $560 per day.

“The agreement, along with the construction of a new storage tank in the north area of the county, will greatly enhance our ability to serve our customers,” said Mayor Tyson Haynes. The storage tank will bring the system’s total storage capacity to around 8 million gallons.

“Approximately 40 percent of our customer base is located in the northern part of the county, but our storage capacity was limited to approximately 1 million gallons in the area,” Haynes said. “The growth and demand has and appears to be in this area. This agreement and infrastructure project should allow us to meet existing and future demand.”

The tank and water lines will be paid for by a $300,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant and another grant of around $860,000 from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority.

“The infrastructure project has a completion date of November 2009,” said Tom Martin, director of Chatsworth Water Works. “That will include the tank and the (water) lines.” The tank will be located in Cisco.