AGENCY PROFILE
Comprehensive Sustainability:
Infrastructure and Workforce Investment at Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority By Glenn Page
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stablished as Georgia’s first water authority by the state legislature in the mid-1900s, we at Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority (CCMWA) have positioned ourselves as the second-largest drinking water provider in Georgia. Although we do not provide residential service, we supply water to about 900,000 people through our 13 retail water customers. CCMWA’s two main sources of supply water are the Chattahoochee River and Allatoona Lake. We own and operate treatment plants for both sources: The James E. Quarles Water Treatment Plant can produce 86 million gallons of water a day from the Chattahoochee River, and the Hugh A. Wyckoff Water Treatment Plant processes 72 million gallons per day from Allatoona Lake. Through continued investment in our infrastructure and people, CCMWA is poised to provide reliable service to our customers now and well into the future.
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF COBB COUNTY-MARIETTA WATER AUTHORITY.
Lasting Infrastructure Aging infrastructure is a challenge for most water utilities across the country. In 2007, we recognized this problem and formalized a capital reinvestment plan to address our infrastructure needs. In the plan, we scope out numerous projects, from replacing faulty pipelines to updating filtration systems. As a water wholesaler, CCMWA is considered a consecutive system under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, which subjects our treatment plants to the EPA disinfection byproduct rule. CCMWA could have easily passed the regulatory burden onto its customers, requiring each retailer to aerate the water, but we decided it was our responsibility. We did about 3 years’ worth of pilot testing of treatment techniques to minimize the precursors for the disinfection byproducts. Through our research, we discovered that the most effective procedure was to use a granular activated carbon post filter. We invested $20–30 million into the project to build the largest postfiltration granular activated carbon facility in a drinking water plant in the United States in 2014.
James E. Quarles Water Treatment Plant.
MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
