Published: July 01, 2008 10:22 pm            

River Alliance airs septic system report

CHATSWORTH — Concerns about septic systems, clean water and the Conasauga River took top billing at Tuesday’s public meeting held by Murray County sole commissioner Jim Welch. Frank Sagona, watershed director for the Conasauga River Alliance, gave a report on a Clean Water Act project currently under way in the county.

The septic system repair project is using $355,000 in federal funds from the Environmental Protection Agency, going back to the 2006 fiscal year. Since instances of fecal coliform bacteria found in the Conasauga arise primarily from septic tank seepage and livestock in the waterway, $90,000 is currently earmarked to help residents and farm owners near the river rehabilitate their septic systems and better manage livestock.

“We’re required by the grant to do 25 septic repairs,” said Sagona. “We’ve completed 10 of them, and have 10 or 11 in progress. There’s usually a two- to three-year time lag on getting these grant monies from the time we apply for them, so now they’re available.”

Also mandated are 300 septic system pump outs and seven agricultural actions, which usually means trying to get farm or ranch owners to fence their livestock out of the water and providing them an alternative drinking source. This may also include working with poultry operations to try and get them to compost litter.

A public workshop will precede the pump outs, with the possibility of property owners receiving vouchers.

Sagona produced a map showing several streams in the Conasauga River watershed not meeting water quality standards due to “elevated levels of nutrients and fecal coliform bacteria.” Aside from the Conasauga, those tributaries included Jacks River and the creeks named Holly, Mill and Polecat in Murray, and the creeks of Haig Mill, Coahulla, Mill, Drowning Bear and Stover in Whitfield. He explained that the alliance is targeting Holly Creek in Murray at this time.

“We pay homeowners a portion of repairing their septic tanks,” Sagona explained. “We’re focusing on hardship cases — senior citizens, single parents, Hispanic families — all close to the river. Some of these septic systems have been in play since the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. The federal funds help with the hardship cases.”

Welch asked how long the alliance had been around and if there are “improvements” in the river.

“We’ve been in existence since 1994 or ‘95,” said Sagona, “and we’ve been nonprofit since 2004. A lot more people are talking about the river. The alliance is a local organization, all the board members are local including those in Polk County and Bradley County (Tenn.), and we’re not getting any resistance. Everyone is open to the idea of clean water.”

In other business, Welch noted Murray County will receive $100,352.56 from the Georgia Department of Transportation as reimbursement for resurfacing Smyrna Ramhurst Road, and mentioned this is only a portion of LARP (Local Assistance Road Program) funds coming into Murray from the state DOT.

Welch outlined a contract with Lookout Mountain Community Services for transportation services. The $151,454 yearly contract covers a maximum of 19,265 trips utilizing six buses, including the Murray County Development Center and two-county transportation. Those trips include trips to doctors and dialysis treatment for residents.

He reported the purchases of three Ford trucks for animal control, the fire department and the Emergency Management Agency rescue squad at a total cost of $69,867.

        

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