CITY OF GRAY
Gray’s new wastewater treatment plant is 15 months into construction and about 50 percent completed.
City Superintendent Cheyenne Morgan said in a July 12 interview that the project was 79 days behind schedule. He said the weather, supply chain issues and hitting bedrock at the site of the new unit all contributed to the delay.
The anticipated completion of the project is now the end of March.
Morgan said in addition to the new construction, they continue to work repair leaks in the city’s sewer lines to address the infiltration and inflow issues. He said the city is working with Georgia Rural Water that can provide more manpower and experience at finding the I&I problems.
“We are making progress, just not the progress we want,” he said.
The superintendent explained that, once construction of treatment plant No. 2 is completed, the current unit, plant No. 1, will be shut down for a complete rehabilitation. When that is done, and both plants are online, the city will have 800,000 gallons per day in capacity to treat wastewater, which is double its current capacity.
During the construction of the new plant, Morgan said they city lost half of its equalization pond that has been vital to its operation for the past few years.
“Once construction is done and we are at full capacity, we can empty the pond and begin diverting stormwater into it and treat it slowly,” he said.
The superintendent said none of that, however, will solve the I&I issues.
“We have to treat everything that comes into the plant, whether it is sewage or rainwater,” he said.
Morgan said they know where some of the problems are and have done a lot of work on the lines around Dolly Street. Now the major problems are coming from other lines, which are being monitored at the pump stations.
The superintendent said he is proud of the staff working for the city.
“In my eyes, we have the two best wastewater treatment operators in Jason Farmer and Matthew Scroggins,” he said.
Farmer is a Class 1 operator and Scroggins, who has been with the city for two years, holds a Class 3 license.
“They help me sleep better at night,” he said. “It’s a good feeling having the right people in the right places.”
Morgan said that includes public works employees.
“They keep the grass cut and medians looking good. It’s a lot to keep up with, especially when it rains every other day,” he said. “Christopher Neal is the Public Works manager, and he does a great job.”
Morgan has worked with the city since 1997. He served as assistant superintendent since June 15, 2020, and was appointed superintendent Dec. 5, 2022.
“A lot goes into making sure water comes out of the faucet, and we are going to stay on top of it,” he said.
Morgan has a good relationship with Jones County Water Superintendent Brandon Stark, which he said is good for both departments.
“We stay in communication and help each other when we can,” he said.
A history of noncompliance, roadblocks
To say the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant for Gray had been on the drawing board for decades is no exaggeration. Gray’s wastewater woes date back to 1999 with its first consent order from the Environmental Protection Division.
That consent order was not lifted until 2003.
The plans for a new wastewater treatment plant have been ongoing since that time, but the cost has been the ongoing problem. The city applied for a loan through the USDA in 2010 for a 1.2 MGD wastewater treatment plant with a $12 million price tag. A change in USDA leadership before the loan was approved put the brakes on the project.
The new USDA leadership determined the city would only qualify for a 0.8 MGD plant. After years of negotiations, the city withdrew its application in 2015 and decided to work on infiltration and inflow issues in the aging sewer lines.
After three years of growth in the city and increased rains, Gray’s city council found itself back in the familiar territory of needing to expand the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
Not only did the problem not go away, but the EPD also issued another consent. At a Feb. 11, 2020, meeting with consulting engineers, council members were told that even if they corrected all the I&I issues with the system, their wastewater treatment plant would still be operating at 70 percent capacity.
With the ever-increasing cost of construction, engineers presented the city with another option: the construction of a smaller 0.4 MGD plant coupled with the rehab of the current 0.4 MGD plant that together would give the city the needed 0.8 MGD capacity.
That put the city back to the drawing board with financing, ultimately being approved for a $9 million GEFA loan in October of 2021. The loan amount was increased to $10.5 million at a Jan. 24, 2022, called meeting and the bid for the project was awarded to Haren Construction Company at the same meeting.
Groundbreaking for the new plant took place May 3, 2022.
