The EPD held a public meeting on September 21, 2006.  They reviewed the draft permit and the Lake Lanier Association (LLA) saw that the specifications were identical to those negotiated by members of the LLA board with Gwinnett County in April 2005.   The LLA has sent its comments on the permit to the EPD.  The LLA notes that Gwinnett County demonstrated high integrity in keeping with the accord mutually agreed rather than change our agreement after the EPD changed the anti-degradation rules in 2005.  Gwinnett expects the discharge to begin in 2009.

In November 2004, the Lake Lanier Association (LLA) and others won a major victory when the Georgia Supreme Court issued a decision on the proposed discharge of 40 million gallons of treated sewage into Lake Lanier. This four and a half year lawsuit resulted in the court’s decision which  rendered  the EPD/Gwinnett permit illegal and sent it back to be reworked. This was a major win for the Lake Lanier Association.

There were several reasons for the Supreme Court Decision. The primary judgement was based on the Georgia anti-degradation rules stating that “high quality waters should not be degraded in any way unless it has been affirmatively demonstrated to the State that a change is justifiable to provide necessary social or economic development and provided further,

"That the level of treatment required is the highest and best practicable under existing technology to protect existing beneficial water uses. All requirements in the Federal Regulations 40 C.F.R.131.12 will be achieved before lowering of water quality is allowed for high quality water”.*

 Since the Gwinnett plant could reach far better specifications of pollutants than the permit required, the permit was invalidated. The management of the specifications for the discharge location was also poorly handled by EPD, and the Supreme Court judged that there needed better assessments of the discharge location.

 With the decision in our favor, and support from John Heard, (State House Representative from Lawrenceville) we began negotiating with Gwinnett County and later with EPD. We have reached a tentative agreement with Gwinnett County that provides reasonable protection for the lake from the pollutants from the sewage plant.

 The discharge location has also been moved from a depth of 34 feet to over 100 feet. This coupled with a lengthy distance under water of the pipe should allow the effluent to remain deep enough to avoid the photic zone and not reach the surface.

 While waiting for this Lanier permit, Gwinnett has implemented a 9 MGD (millions of gallons a day) interim discharge permit from the Hill plant to the Chattahoochee . We anticipate the permit be re-issued before the end of 2006.