2005 Draft EPD Permit to City of Gainesville/Flat Creek (767KB)

In summer 2003, the EPD issued a permit to the City of Gainesville which would have allowed Gainesville to expand its Flat Creek Plant in order to discharge an average of 12 million gallons per day (“MGD”) of treated sewage into Flat Creek, and subsequently to further expand the plant in order to discharge 15 MGD and then 18 MGD directly into Lake Lanier

The Lake Lanier Association filed suit against the EPD and City of Gainesville as the state and federal antidegradation regulations prohibit new discharges into high quality waters such as Lake Lanier unless the lower water quality caused by the discharge

"is justifiable to provide necessary economic or social development” and “the level of treatment required [by the Permit] is the highest and best practicable under existing technology.” 

The effluent limits in the permit for Gainesville’s Flat Creek Plant were identical to the limits in the Gwinnett County Permit, which was ruled illegal by the Georgia Supreme Court in their November 2004 decision.

The permit authorized Gainesville to discharge 18 MGD of treated sewage into Lake Lanier at a location between mile markers 41 and 42, approximately two miles south of Lanier Bridge on State Route 53.  That proposed discharge location would be in close proximity to specific recreational areas of the Lake, namely one mile upstream from River Forks Park which contains public swimming beaches, and less than half a mile across from the Robinson Access site.