SOUTH FORSYTH -- A Forsyth County water treatment facility is getting a monsoon of an upgrade.
Forsyth County commissioners approved a $63 million bid for the expansion to the Fowler Wastewater Reclamation Facility to Archer Western Inc. at a recent work session. The expansion will have two phases and will double and later triple the workload of the plant.
“Phase one is to increase the capacity from 2.5 to 5 million gallons per day, and then the second phase is up to 7.5 [million gallons per day],” Procurement Director Donna Kukarola said.
Kukarola said the work will take 870 days, or more than two years.
Tim Perkins, director of the Water and Sewer Department, said he expects work to begin in March but that it depends on when contacts are signed.
The project will use Water and Sewer funds but that a bond will likely be needed and will be discussed later this year for future projects.
Perkins said much of the capacity has already been committed to upcoming developments.
“A lot of this capacity that we’re building today has already been started,” he said. “Developments take several, several years to build out, so we have already previously sold a lot of this capacity [and] collected funds. That’s where a lot of funds are coming from for the facility.”
He said the next expansion project for the facility, after the one approved at the meeting, is already in the works.
“A lot of infrastructure is being put in presently,” Perkins said. “Starting probably in 2020, some additional work will be needed at Fowler.
“The next expansion of Fowler doesn’t start until 2024, based on projections, when we would go up to 12.5 [million gallons-per-day].”
That future expansion will eliminate one of the current fields at Fowler Park, which was built on the department’s property as part of an agreement.
“One of those fields is on Water and Sewer’s future expansion site; the Parks [and Recreation] Department knows about it,” Perkins said. “What was put on that area, building-wise, was something that would be easy to tear out.”