Benefits
The improvements to the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility will offer a great deal of benefits to the community and environment, both during construction and in the long run. The design of the improved plant and the construction schedule have been carefully selected and organized around the community’s needs.
Fulton County is making an investment to support future growth for the County. The overall goal of the project is to protect the environment while improving the quality of treated water discharged into the Chattahoochee River and to meet the capacity demands of the areas served.
The Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility serves the largest service area and largest total flow of treatment facilities in North Fulton County. It serves Roswell, Alpharetta, portions of Milton and Johns Creek and areas of Cobb and Forsyth County.
Due to the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District forecast, which takes the continued population growth and economic development into account, the facility requires additional capacity to meet the growing wastewater treatment demands of the service area.
The benefits of the expanded facility will include increased capacity from 24 MGD (million gallons per day) to 38 MGD with an efficient and reliable treatment process to meet these communities’ needs. To do so, the new facility will provide state-of-the-art advanced treatment. It will also eliminate odor, improve facility aesthetics and restore reliability and safety for the aging facility.
The facility will promote a healthy environment that includes efficient and effective building form, materials, energy efficiency and optimized operations. The facility will be efficiently sized, leaving a smaller footprint and a larger buffer for nearby residents and businesses. The project may also include recreational enhancements to the plant’s grounds such as biking and hiking trails.
The improvements to the facility will also address the odor issues that the community has been experiencing. Exposed weirs and water surfaces have created a foul odor that spreads to surrounding neighborhoods. The improved facility will have covered treatment basins and fans connected to odor control equipment that will draw air from under the basin so that all air in the basins will be treated by the odor control equipment. Additionally, there will be multi-stage chemical scrubbers and granular activated carbon (GAC) used in the highest odor areas. GAC will be used for the remainder of potential odorous areas. Sensors will also monitor the air leaving the GAC units to make sure they are working properly.
Despite the significant increase in capacity, the water produced will be of a much higher quality and will result in a waste load reduction to the Chattahoochee River by up to 50 percent of the
For any questions or concerns regarding the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility expansion, please reach out using the form on the Contact page of this website.
