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Flat Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Gainesville, Georgia receives EPA Clean Water Act Recognition Award

Release Date: 11/20/2007
Contact Information: Davina Marraccini, (404) 562-8293, [email protected]

(ATLANTA – November 20, 2007) Today, EPA presented the Flat Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Gainesville, Ga., with the EPA Region 4 2007 Clean Water Act Operations & Maintenance Award for the Large Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant category. Because of the Flat Creek Water Reclamation Facility’s ability to respond to stringent requirements through innovative system design, EPA’s national office has also recognized the facility with a Second Place Award for Operations & Maintenance in the Large, Advanced Plant category of the National 2007 Clean Water Act Awards.

Under the Clean Water Act, EPA provides awards to facilities that have demonstrated outstanding and innovative waste treatment and pollution abatement practices during the year. The program is intended to educate the public about the contributions publicly-owned wastewater treatment facilities make to clean water and to recognize communities that go beyond the minimum requirements needed to meet the Clean Water Act.

Gainesville’s Flat Creek Water Reclamation Facility serves more than 33,000 people and is a great example of a wastewater treatment plant that is able to meet stringent requirements and effluent limits by implementing innovative technology. Staff have developed and implemented unique and innovative ideas to optimize their treatment process with the use of inline flow equalization. When peak loads of wastewater from large industrial processes enter the system, inline flow equalization allows operators to maintain a steady flow of wastewater being treated and improves efficiency. The Flat Creek Water Reclamation Facility’s intensive monitoring and inspection program is a proactive approach to eliminating system wastewater overflows from reaching waters of the U.S., primarily Lake Lanier. Even with the plant’s recent design modifications and expansions, the Flat Creek Water Reclamation Facility is consistently able to meet Georgia’s water quality goals for protecting one of metro Atlanta’s largest drinking water sources, Lake Sidney Lanier.

More information about the award is available online at: http://epa.gov/owm/mtb/intnet.htm