New infrastructure project seeks
to double water plant capacity
By Frank Stephens
Gwinnett Public Utilities
Special to GwinnettForum.com

MARCH 22, 2002 -- LANCOOL may sound like the latest sports shoe craze, but its definition has more to do with running water than running laps. LANCOOL is the acronym applied to the Lanier Community Outreach and Liaison Project, a campaign aimed at providing Gwinnett County residents with up-to-date information about a group of inter-related water projects being constructed to ensure a safe, reliable drinking water supply for today and tomorrow.

The water projects include several projects:

• The new Shoal Creek Filter Plant on Stewart Road,
• A new intake near Lanier Park, which will draw water from Lake Lanier to be treated for drinking water;
• The water lines needed to get the water from the lake to the Shoal Creek plant;
• Water lines to share drinking water from the Shoal Creek plant with the existing Lanier Filter Plant;
• A new reservoir off Sawnee Avenue to hold water from Lake Lanier in reserve as a backup to the intake.

The Shoal Creek plant will work in unison with the existing Lanier Filter Plant to expand the county's water treatment capacity from 150 million gallons per day (mgd) to 300 mgd. These projects will add significant redundancy to the existing water system, ensuring that water will keep flowing in the event of an unforeseen outage at the existing facilities.

There is currently only one water intake and one water treatment plant that provide drinking water to more than 600,000 Gwinnett County citizens. By adding a second water treatment plant and intake, and a new reservoir, redundancy will be provided that should keep the water flowing in the event of an unforeseen outage at the existing facilities. They will also help meet the County's projected demand for drinking water through the year 2050.

Water lines are also being constructed to connect the new plant to the existing Lanier Filter Plant and to bring water from the Lake Lanier intake to the new plant. Because the new plant is intended to provide redundancy to the water system, it and the existing Lanier Filter Plant will work as one plant producing drinking water. Water from both plants will be pumped into transmission lines feeding the entire distribution system.

Site clearing and construction on these projects began in May of 2001, and will continue through early 2005.

The County has held a number of community meetings to inform local residents about the project, and a project website is updated regularly with construction progress and other news. There is also a section for residents to sign up for "e-updates" - email progress updates sent out regularly and for special notices. A 24-hour hotline, 770-614-9287, is also available as a one-stop source for managing construction-related concerns.

For more information about LANCOOL, contact Conrad Gelot at 678-376-7120.

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WATER SYSTEM EXPANDS. Work is well underway on efforts to double the capacity of the Gwinnett Water System, as shown in the top photo. The bottom image is a drawing of work being done. For a detailed update on the progress, read Frank Stephens in today's Forum.

For today's column by Elliott Brack, click here.

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"The Gwinnett Neighborhood Leadership Institute is now recruiting for its 2002-2003 community Leadership Training Program, kicking off in late August."

-- Trish Joyner, Gwinnett Neighborhood Leadership Institute

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