Funding will be a major issue in a long-term solution to problems of Polk County Water Authority customers in the Vincent Mountain area.

This was the news presented to a crowd of residents who gathered at County Line Baptist Church Thursday night. The meeting was held for Water Authority board members to hear comments and questions from the community.

Board members at the meeting were Thomas James, chairman; Randy Pruitt, vice chairman; James Wright, David Jarvis and Mike Morrissey. Chris Culver, another board member, was not present. Dick Martin, manager, Polk County Water Authority, said a short term solution to solving bacteria problems found in water purchased from Paulding County is to install equipment to automatically add more chlorine at the master meter where the two systems join. Paulding County purchases water from Cobb Marietta.

“The treatment plant we have at Deaton Spring will be set up to record chlorine residuals continuously,” he said. “We will install a system that will enable us to communicate electronically with the chlorine injection system at the Deaton Spring plant. If something happens, we can respond immediately.”

The new injection system, estimated to cost $20,000, will take from six to eight weeks to install. Anticipated grant funds will be used for what Martin termed an “emergency project.” Long term, he said, the Water Authority hopes to run lines along with a booster station to serve the Vincent Mountain area from the Deaton Spring plant or Hightower Mountain tank.

No decision has been made as to which option will be used. Estimated costs of this project would be $1.3 million.

Martin said the Water Authority sold bonds in 1996 for several projects, one of which was to supply the Vincent Mountain area with water. However, he said the project was delayed due to anticipated Department of Transportation construction on Vincent Mountain Road.

“The Authority did not want to put in water lines and then have to relocate them,” he said. “In the meantime, the money got gone. It was spent on other projects.”

When asked what happened to the allocated funds, Martin responded, “Most of it was used to run a 16-inch line from the Deaton Spring filtration plant to the west side of the county,” he said.

“As for the rest, two tanks were built on the western side of the county. The ground wouldn’t support the weight and the tanks caved in. “This was an emergency situation,” he continued.

“It cost almost one-half million to dismantle tanks and move to another area on the western side of the county.” Martin said the Water Authority now has a $13 million bond issue and the debt service is around $90,000 a month.

“This is not leaving us with an appreciable amount of capital to do expansion projects,” he said.

“We don’t get any tax money. Our revenue comes from our customers.”

He pointed out that with budget cuts, grants are very difficult to get.

“The only way to do it quickly is to get a grant,” he explained. “If we can get a 50-percent grant, we can proceed with engineering as soon as we receive it.

“The project from the time the Authority begins engineering work until completion would take about a year.”

Martin informed the crowd that the Water Authority does not have the funds for a major project. “Before we can start such a project, we have to get additional revenue,” he continued.

“If money wasn’t an issue, we would start having this thing engineered in the morning but we are going to work to try to come up with funding or partial funding so that we can do this.

“We want you to have Polk County Water. We have plenty. It is just a matter of getting it here under enough pressure.”

During his remarks, Martin talked about what he termed an “inconvenience and not a good thing to happen to those using water purchased from Paulding County.”

He referenced a boil drinking water advisory issued in July due to a low chlorine count and bacteria found during routine and follow up sampling. “We are going to take some steps [chlorine injection system] to make sure this does not reoccur,” he said.

Martin said that chlorine is added to the water purchased from Paulding County, which buys their supply from the Cobb/ Marietta system. Paulding County has no treatment system, but Cobb Marietta does.

He said after the bacteria was found, Polk Water Authority probably flushed two or three billion gallons on its side of the master meter and estimated that Paulding had done the same.

“We have spent time sampling the water,” he said. “We have not had a bad one since July 22.”