Guyton’s planned wastewater treatment plant near the Ogeechee River is on hold after a proposed revision to flood maps show a larger section of the plant site may be in a 100-year flood zone.
The revision is the result of an appeal of the flood elevations included in the maps that was filed by an attorney representing Craig Barrow III of Savannah.
Barrow owns 2,400 acres along the Ogeechee River and across Riverside Drive from the proposed plant site.
Barrow has been a vocal opponent of the city’s plans and also filed a petition in November of 2013 to have the permit withdrawn.
Corrected data used to revise the maps show flood elevations rise about two feet and cover more of the Guyton site, according to James Campbell, an engineer representing Barrow. The data involved a tree survey of the area that showed the 2012 maps used an inaccurate factor for determining the velocity and depth of the water.
Barrow said the revision to the maps show what he and others who own property along the river have been saying for years.
“That area floods,” Barrow said. “The plant shouldn’t be built there.”
Georgia Water Quality Control Act and standards state that spray fields should be avoided within the 100-year flood zone.
The permit for the land application spray site is now on hold, pending map changes, according to Kevin Chambers, communication director for the state EPD.
Guyton has thirty days to comment on the map changes.
Guyton City Manager Robert Black said the city is working on a response.
Barrow’s petition for a reversal of the permit is also now on hold, with all parties waiting for a final FEMA map.
A challenge to Barrow’s standing to bring the petition of the permit was, however, heard in a three-day hearing in late January and early February by Administrative Law Judge Kristin Miller.
In her ruling that Barrow can bring the petition to court, Miller also wrote that a surface water connection does exist from Guyton’s property to Barrow’s. She wrote that the city’s consultant, Sam Asady’s testimony was “defensive, and at times evasive, which further undermined his credibility.” Asady had testified that Riverside Drive served as a “continental divide” through which it was impossible for surface water to pass.
Miller wrote that Asady’s testimony was contradicted by other expert testimony, the physical characteristics of the site and Barrow’s own observations.
Guyton WWTP
The city paid $2 million in 2008 for two parcels along Riverside Drive totalling 646 acres.
Original plans called for the plant to cost about $13.5 million with discharge going in to the river.
The city later scaled back those plans to a $4.5 million plant that would operate as a land spray facility with no discharge into the Ogeechee River.
Guyton also turned down numerous offers from the county to treat the city’s sewage. The city has cited a higher cost as a reason to decline county offers.
The county’s plant can treat 1 million gallons per day and is currently only using a small portion of its capacity — between about 150,000 -200,000 gallons per day.
The city of Springfield currently treats Guyton’s waste.