Toccoa Working on Ward Creek Sewer Spills

The city of Toccoa is working to try and lessen problems with sanitary sewer spills at the Ward Creek Liftstation.

Continuing a problem that has existed for years, heavy rain events in Stephens County in recent weeks have caused two more sanitary sewer spills at the Liftstation, which is located in the Fernside Drive area.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said that the first thing the city is still trying to do is eliminate places where rainfall is getting into the city’s sewer system, which increases the intake at Ward Creek past its capabilities.

“We have bought some monitors,” said Morse. “You put these monitors in the manhole and it will show you what the flow is in that specific area and hopefully, that will help us determine where rainwater is getting into the system. That is what is causing the problem. It is not sewer that is causing the problem. It is the inflow of rainwater into the sewer system that is causing the problems. If we can pinpoint where the rainwater is getting into the system, then we can correct that.”

Morse said that the city is also working to increase the efficiency of the pumps at the Ward Creek Liftstation.

“We purchased a high-performance impeller and replaced it in one of the pumps,” said Morse. “If the results of that are positive, we will buy a second impeller for the second pump and that will help the efficiency of the pumps that are there.”

However, Morse said that will only partially fix the problem as it goes beyond the Ward Creek Liftstation.

“Part of the problem is that at some point in the line, around Big A Road, there is sort of a bottleneck,” said Morse. “The line is not adequate to handle increased pumping, so then you would just move the overflow to another location if you did it that way.”

Morse said that to fix the problem completely, it will require bigger sewer lines on Big A Road.

He said that can be addressed when the city moves forward with eventual plans to extend sewer along Big A Road from Fernside Drive to Wal-Mart.

“We will be installing a new line down Big A Road and we will just tie into that,” said Morse. “We will just size it long enough to handle Ward Creek.”

There is no specific timeline for that to be completed at this point.