For the past 20 years, there’s been a cold war of sorts going on in the Southeast. Georgia, Florida and Alabama have been at odds in and out of the courtroom regarding the supply of fresh water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basin. These rivers provide the growing metro Atlanta area with its water, but Alabama and Florida worry that not enough will be left for their needs downstream.
Located on the northern edge of the Atlanta metro area, the Cherokee County Water & Sewerage Authority (CCWSA) has remained mostly above the fray thanks to its foresight and conservative philosophy, according to General Manager Thomas Heard. Even though the authority faces the same challenges the rest of the region grapples with in terms of water supply issues, Heard says the CCWSA is better prepared than most to deal with them, thanks to the experience of its board members.
Based in Canton, Ga., the CCWSA provides a population of approximately 195,000 customers with water and sewer service. Unlike many other utilities in the region, the CCWSA is an independent authority with no taxing power. Instead, it relies solely on revenues generated by water sales, operating more like a co-op. Although some might say the lack of state or federal funding puts the CCWSA at a disadvantage, Heard says nothing could be further from the truth. He says that because of its independent status, the CCWSA takes a more cautious approach than other agencies and therefore it is better equipped to serve its customers.
Thinking Ahead
The most obvious example of the CCWSA’s foresight is the Hollis Q. Lathem Reservoir, located in northeast Cherokee County. The authority completed the reservoir in the 1990s to provide it with a reliable supply of water in the event of drought or other emergency, as well as to sell to neighboring agencies for additional revenue. Heard says the county experienced the worst drought in nearly 200 years in 2007, but survived it with little trouble thanks to the reservoir.
The completion of the reservoir also gave the CCWSA reason to expand its water treatment facility to full capacity. The plant can treat up to 30 million gallons a day, although currently, it treats between 15 million and 18 million gallons on a typical day. Heard says the additional capacity will give the CCWSA the ability to meet the growing needs of the community for the foreseeable future.
Without government funding, the CCWSA has to be more fiscally conservative than other agencies, and Heard says the authority has set some strict boundaries for itself. “The biggest thing we did going into the economic situation we’re in now [is that] six or seven years ago, we restricted ourselves so we require our [authority] to have complete bond coverage,” he says.
This allows the authority to use fees to pay for its operating costs, as well as build up its reserves to use for capital improvement projects. Heard adds that because of this, the CCWSA can keep operating regardless of growth in the county.
“For a system our size, we’re A++-rated on annuities,” he says, the same rating as many local governments have. This gives the authority a good position to keep up with the growing demands of its customer base in the county without the need to acquire financing.
Best and Brightest
Unlike governments, however, the CCWSA is free from political wrangling and red tape thanks to its independent status. The authority’s board is selected by a grand jury that selects the most qualified members of the community.
The only requirements for someone to join the board are that they be a customer of the CCWSA and have lived in the county for at least two years. This gives the authority a wide range of experience from which to draw from, because the board members come from all walks of life. “We’ll have bankers, we’ll have people in development,” Heard says. “It gives us a good mix.”
With the board consisting of qualified people from lawyers to utility experts, Heard says the CCWSA is rarely lacking in expert opinions. “Anything that can lend to the actual operation, you will usually have people who have experience in that,” Heard says.
With term limits preventing board members from serving more than two four-year terms, the CCWSA avoids the political situations that plague many other agencies. That extends to hiring, where the authority maintains a staff of between 180 and 200 people depending on demand.
“Because of that, we run a lot closer on employee count, which keeps some of the politics out,” Heard says. “By necessity, we run a lean ship.”
Political Thriller
The CCWSA avoids political squabbles, but the same cannot be said for other agencies in the region. Heard says tensions are high because of the number of contentious lawsuits and rulings being filed by the states of Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The biggest challenge for the CCWSA is continuing to serve its customers as best it can while still adhering to regulations set forth by the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, of which it is a member.
Heard says that by virtue of being a “have” instead of a “have-not” in the region, the CCWSA could be impacted by efforts at the state level to redistribute water to other communities. Although the authority is willing to share, Heard says, it all comes down to dollars and cents and what is best for its customers. The CCWSA has been visiting with the Georgia state legislature to plead its case, but Heard is wary about the future because the authority is in a minority position compared to the situation being faced by the Atlanta metropolitan area.
“We’ve had good communication so far, but it’s a really scary situation for water right now in Atlanta,” he says, adding that the city’s needs for water in the years to come will most likely take priority with the state government. Because Atlanta is located at the head areas of two rivers, it doesn’t experience a lot of recharge from rainfall, forcing it to rely on other sources of water, Heard adds.
Reasons for Optimism
Nevertheless, Heard sees good things in store for the CCWSA in the near future, as well. The authority, along with six neighboring counties, recently completed a study of the river basin to determine water quality. The authority has spent $4 million on the study, and Heard says getting counties to the north involved in water quality can only benefit the CCWSA in the long run.
“Anything we do to protect the river down here is annulled if they don’t do it upstream,” he says, adding that cooperation needs to be a primary focus for the authority in the future.
To help clean up water that becomes tainted by chemical runoff from development, the authority is examining the possibility of offering credits for phosphorus and other harmful chemicals. Under the system, Heard says, developers would purchase credits from the authority based on the amount of pollutants their developments create, and those funds would be distributed toward clean-up efforts.
Heard says Cherokee County is growing just slightly off the pace of some of the fastest-growing areas of the state, which means more revenue eventually. He says the Southeast benefits from its warmer weather and growing development, whereas other areas of the country will likely experience a slower recovery from the current recession.
“The future looks real good when the economy comes back,” he says. “This is an area where people really want to be.”
