CCWA Completes Phase I of Huie Constructed Wetlands Project

Clayton County Water Authority (CCWA) staff members and local dignitaries celebrated the opening of the state-of-the-art W.B. Casey Water Reclamation Facility. Miles away, another CCWA property opened to less hoopla, yet its impact on CCWA customers will be equally great.

The first phase of the constructed wetlands at the E.L. "Ed" Huie Constructed Wetlands Facility is complete, with an initial wastewater treatment capacity of 3.6 million gallons per day. The Huie site, off Noah's Ark Road in south Clayton County is a collection of ponds whose visual simplicity belies the complexity of treatment functions they will bring the customers of the Authority.

Water leaving the new Casey Plant will now pass through constructed wetlands on the Huie site, before eventually making its way to the CCWA's Shamrock and Blalock Reservoir. Raw water from these reservoirs is then pumped to the Authority's Freeman Road Water Production complex or flows downstream to the W.J. Hooper Reservoir and Water Plant for eventual drinking water production and distribution.

The Huie project involved the conversion of 90 acres of spray irrigation to 55 acres of constructed wetlands. This is being done to reduce the cost of treatment and the need for additional land for spray irrigation of treated wastewater, necessary to meet the future demands of the county.

Phase II of the Huie project is currently under review by the Georgia Environmental Protection division and is slated to begin in early 2005.

Source: Clayton County Water Authority