Open House at Wastewater Treatment Plant - August 4, 2011

June 27, 2011, Darien, GA: For over a year, the City of Darien's Wastewater Treatment Plant has been undergoing a major renovation and upgrade.

Using an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Grant and a low-interest Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) loan, the City has put over $1,000,000 of improvements into the 27-year old facility. The investment includes new equipment that will increase the plant's reliability and efficiency, extend its service life by at least another 20 years, and reduce the cost of operation by as much as 28 percent.

The improvements were planned and supervised by Brennan Jones; a contract engineer who has worked with the City for over 5-years to upgrade its wastewater collection system, lift stations and treatment plant. When funding became available in 2009, Jones already had detailed plans ready.
"It is very unusual to find grant funding for public infrastructure these days", said City Manager Brett Cook, "and we were fortunate this project was 'shovel-ready' when the ARRA grant was announced."

The work was performed by W.F. Floyd Construction Company of Decatur, GA; a company that specializes in municipal water and wastewater systems, and has an enviable reputation for quality work throughout the southeast. The work included renovation of almost everything in the plant; with the exception of the drying beds and headworks.

Another improvement at the plant included paving 300 linear feet of asphalt driveway to handle heavy trucks. This work was done by Jones Asphalt and Paving of Eulonia; a local contractor.

While all this was going on, another ARRA grant was being used to build a 72-panel solar photovoltaic array; and on May 2nd, the City of Darien began selling electricity to Georgia Power. The electricity produced by the solar array goes through a meter into the Georgia Power grid; with as much as 60-kilowatts a day being put into their system. Georgia Power credits the City's bill at the end of the month for this power; with the rate credited being higher per kilowatt-hour than what the City is billed for each kilowatt-hour it uses.