Contact: Mr. Peter J. Frost, Executive Director, Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority, P.O. Box 1157, Douglasville, GA 30135, 770/949-7617, 770/949-8669 (fax)
Description of Effort
The Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) is a multi-jurisdictional utility that provides wholesale or retail water supply and wastewater services to approximately 120,000 residential and industrial users in Douglas County, the cities of Douglasville and Lithia Springs, and Carroll County.
Unlike a local government that must allocate resources to competing agendas such as paving roads or building libraries, the WSA is a single-issue independent utility focused on water supply and water quality decisions that support the community’s short- and long-term best interest.
Douglas County is located in metropolitan Atlanta; the Chattahoochee River defines its eastern boundary downstream of the City of Atlanta. The Chattahoochee River is an unacceptable water supply source for the municipalities in Douglas County due to the expense of treating withdrawals to drinking water standards and the public’s long-standing and vocal disfavor to use this source. Water supply and wastewater treatment options for the City of Douglasville and Douglas County, therefore, have been limited to the small watersheds within their jurisdictions and to the purchase of wholesale water from the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority.
In 1974, legislation was developed to create a Douglasville-Douglas County Water Authority but the effort floundered. In 1985, the Douglasville, Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority Act was passed, expanding the responsibilities of the authority to include wastewater collection and treatment. The legislation did not require either the city or county to join the WSA, although both elected to do so.
Several factors led to the development of WSA. The City of Douglasville operated two wastewater treatment facilities and a small water treatment plant but received most of its water from the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority. Although the water supply arrangements were adequate, the city had concern about long-term access to water supplies. In addition, the infrastructure development between the city and county was not coordinated. It lacked continuity in management philosophy resulting in redundant services at the corporate limits of the jurisdictions.
The county, in particular, lagged behind other jurisdictions in metropolitan Atlanta in infrastructure development. It had an inadequate water system and no centralized sanitary sewer system. The county wanted to extend its very small sewer system but lacked finances and expertise. During dry periods, the county’s water system inevitably was the first to be stressed, becoming an early-warning indicator of difficult times for metro-area water systems. The city found that its development potential was affected by the limited services in the county.
Managerial Considerations
The local legislation leading to the passage of the Act in 1985 was the brainchild of the Douglas County Commission Chairman, the Mayor of the City of Douglasville, and the local legislative delegation. The group demonstrated significant foresight by setting aside political differences to combine efforts. The process to create the WSA was organized around general discussions, which led to consensus among the key players as well as input obtained from citizen stakeholders through public forums.
After passage of the Act, an organizational meeting of the key players was held at which a strategy to merge the systems was devised including how to secure the funds needed, what type of administrative structure would be used, and the hiring of an executive director. All new information systems were developed to monitor operations, personnel, and other performance parameters. The executive staff and board of directors are accountable for the direction and results of the WSA.
The WSA Board of Directors is composed of eight members, five of which are appointed by mutual agreement of the Mayor of the City of Douglasville and the Chairman of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners. The Mayors of Douglasville and Lithia Springs and the Chairman serve as ex officio members. During board appointments, emphasis has been placed on selecting expertise in specific disciplines. For instance, a certified public accountant, a building contractor, and a high-ranking water resource planner for the United States Army Corps of Engineers were included in the first board.
The board members can serve up to two consecutive five-year terms. The selection process alternates between the two jurisdictions discouraging politically based appointments. One year the city recommends three candidates to the county that has the license to select one new board member and the next year, the county recommends three candidates for the city’s selection. If all of the candidates are unacceptable, a superior court judge would make the selection, although it has never been necessary to use this mediation method. With the county commission chairman and the mayor also sitting on the board, the WSA receives the added advantage of having a direct understanding of local government priorities such as increased commercial growth or a slowing of overall growth. The WSA board tries to support local objectives through such actions as extending services to identified development corridors.
The initial board members developed a managerial philosophy that defines the role of WSA in the community. WSA is responsible for the long-term interests of the community beyond just meeting regulatory requirements. For example, the WSA has adjusted rates to pay for maintenance and operations that exceeded state standards because it was the right thing to do for the system and the community.
The WSA has developed a nationally recognized watershed protection plan to preserve the quality of local sources of drinking water. This program includes assessment of practices that pose a potential risk to WSA’s small water supply watersheds and protection measures to preserve water quality. The watershed protection plan:
encourages proper zoning,
requires maintenance of septic tank systems,
requires implementation of erosion and sedimentation control measures, and
includes an active public awareness campaign that reinforces environmental messages and stresses water conservation.
In the 1970’s, Douglas County implemented large lot zoning to increase permitted withdrawal from the Bear Creek Reservoir. In addition to the large lot zoning, the watershed protection plan instituted:
setbacks,
density incentives for increased undisturbed buffers, and
mandatory pumping of septic tanks every five years to safeguard against malfunctioning systems.
The setbacks, more stringent than state requirements, are implemented within 2.5 miles of a reservoir and include 150’ undisturbed stream buffers and another 150’ buffer zone that can be disturbed but cannot contain structures or impervious surfaces.
When the Dog River Reservoir was developed, a watershed assessment was completed that led to prohibition of new commercial development within a five-mile radius of the reservoir in addition to the measures in the watershed protection plan. Beyond the five-mile boundary, certain commercial development is allowed, but new multi-family and industrial development are prohibited within the entire watershed.
The WSA has facilitated a comprehensive approach to watershed protection by devising a single set of rules and ordinances that is seamless across jurisdictions. This approach has worked. The city and county adopted protection measures as ordinances and, as a condition of supply, jurisdictions outside of Douglas County but within the watershed have adopted similar measures as well. The WSA accepted the same protection measures as rules and now all decisions in the watershed are based on industry standards of practices that protect water supplies and that are supported by assessment of risk.
For instance, the WSA has made conscious decisions not to extend sewer services into small water supply watersheds because the placement of infrastructure necessitates recovering costs through further development that will compromise water quality. In addition, if a zoning variance is under consideration that is in conflict with the watershed protection program, the WSA has the authority to recommend denial of the request and to refuse water service.
The WSA is now conducting watershed assessments based on state procedures and standards. Assessments in both the Anneewakee Creek and the Gothards Creek basins are being implemented for future expansion of wastewater treatment plants.
Through these relationships and activities, the WSA has become a respected member of the community. It comments on all subdivision and commercial development projects, declining to provide service to developments that conflict with the community’s watershed protection objectives. The WSA is looked to for guidance because it has remained apolitical in establishing and operating its system. The WSA has not abused its position to affect the operations or decision-making authority of the local governments and the mayor and county commission chairman do not bring city/county conflicts to the business of the WSA. The community continues to be involved in major program decisions through public forums.
Technical Considerations
The WSA merged the existing county and city systems when it assumed responsibility for water and sewer services. In making the transition, departmental data from the city and county were used as sources of technical information, while technical assistance was received from investment bankers, engineering consultants, and in-house experts. The current operations of WSA include:
a water supply intake on the Anneewakee Creek,
two intakes on the Dog River Reservoir,
an intake on the Bear Creek Reservoir,
a water treatment plant,
five wastewater treatment facilities, and
one land application system.
The WSA routinely exceeds and continuously meets state water quality regulations and industry standards applicable to monitoring and testing requirements.
The Bear Creek Reservoir is small and its watershed has undergone significant urbanization. It is used as an auxiliary water supply during shortages. The WSA is concentrating its water source protection efforts on the Dog River Watershed. The 250-acre Dog River Reservoir, constructed in 1992, increased surface water storage capacity by 1.2 billion gallons in addition to the nearly 11 million gallon combined storage capacity of the distribution system. In 1998, less than 10 percent of WSA’s water supply was purchased from the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority. It is still more cost-effective to purchase water to serve the very eastern portion of the county than to provide for the needs of this area through in-county sources.
The WSA develops a long-range, 20-year plan to guide its programs. From that, five-year plans are adopted to guide extension of infrastructure and expansion of services. The WSA is unique in its ability to be the sole determination of how to plan and where to place infrastructure as defined in the bond convenants. The city and county comprehensive plans, therefore, are coordinated with the WSA’s plans. An Annual Work Plan determines local water and sewer line placement. In cases when there is not a strong technical basis on which to select line placement, the WSA seeks input from local elected officials. Recommendations for areas needing service extension are solicited and requests are selected in a manner that shares local projects across the community.
Financial Considerations
The WSA executive director negotiated purchase contracts of the city and county systems that included defeasance of $18.5 million outstanding bond debt and guarantees provision of water and sewer services. Other terms of the purchase contracts included:
immediate takeover of operations,
customer billing activities,
assurances that projects in process would be completed, and
agreement to hire operational but not managerial personnel.
At the time of purchase, the city and county’s systems had appraised assets of $22 million. The WSA issued bonds to pay the purchase contract after buying bond insurance because it was a new agency. Strategies to finance projects included a $20 million maximum one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that was collected in three years. Projects are linked to the capital improvement budget in terms of construction, infrastructure replacement, and improvement strategies on a contractual basis. The WSA’s assets are now valued at $156 million and the current budget is more than $17 million.
Tap-in fees were identified in the bonding contract as a revenue source. A cost of service analysis was undertaken and used in designing a rate structure that equalized differentials. At the time of takeover, the two jurisdictions had dissimilar rate structures; the city used an incline structure, while the county’s was inverted. The WSA is financially self-supporting based on tap-in fees and rates; it currently holds an A bond rating.
Outcomes
Under the WSA, the Douglasville–Douglas County system has moved from an indicator of impeding doom for metro-area water utilities to an agency that is regularly recognized as a model system by both the regulatory community and by the water and wastewater industry. It has received awards from EPA Region IV and national associations.
WSA staff individually and the entity as a whole are recognized experts and are highly respected by the community. The WSA has successfully fought challenges to its decisions relative to providing water and sewer services. Even detractors have come to see that WSA’s decisions have been best for the community and the occasional criticism is typically issue-based and not targeted at the WSA as an entity.
WSA learned two important lessons relative to start-up.
Do not to promise to be everything to everybody. In soliciting the community’s support for the SPLOST, the benefits of the WSA were promoted to the point that the electorate was told whatever they wanted, they would get including water lines, sewer service, lower rates, etc. In the process of gaining support for the passage of a $20 million SPLOST referendum, $200 million worth of projects were promised.
Implementation takes time.
WSA has grown from assets valued at $22 million to over $150 million in less than 15 years. Improved water supply has contributed to supporting growth in the community. In addition, water quality has improved as a result of WSA’s professional approach to water management and implementation of its comprehensive watershed protection strategy. |
