Water Pollution Control FAQs

Treatment plants remove impurities contained in wastewater. This treated water can then be safely discharged to the environment. This same process occurs in nature. Treatment plants enhance this natural process and speed it up to treat larger volumes of wastewater in a shorter period of time. Treatment includes physical, biological and chemical processes to reclaim the water.

Your grandparents had to worry about typhoid, cholera and other infectious diseases that are carried in raw sewage. Wastewater treatment systems serve primarily to protect the health of the general population by insuring that water sources remain clean. In today's world, people live a lot longer and in higher concentrations resulting in increased volumes of raw sewage. Modern wastewater treatment systems are critical to a safer, cleaner environment by reducing the organic load, and controlling bacteria and waterborne diseases.

The City of Summerville has one Wastewater Treatment Facilities which is regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GAEPD). These agencies perform random testing of the facilities' effluent. The USEPA, through the GAEPD, issues a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit. Included in the NPDES permit are specific guidelines concerning the testing of the facilities' effluent.

The City of Summerville performs lab analyses 3 days-a-week which the NPDES permit requires. Our facilities average 2 Mg/L BOD and 4 Mg/L suspended solids in their effluent, or roughly 12% and 10% respectively, of the allowable maximum limits under the City's NPDES permit. Reclaimed water from our wastewater plant is discharged directly into a surface waterway, with a part of it sent from a reuse pumping station to a local industry.

Our plant is located at 470 Red Oak Rd. Summerville Ga.

Plant tours can be requested and are conducted at this facility, mentioned above. For more information, or to schedule a tour, call 706-859-0918.

Please call the Water Pollution Control Plant at 706-859-0918.