Cumming-Forsyth County Water War Rages
Forsyth County Commissioners failed to make progress while under threat of an Oct. 1 cutoff of the county's raw water supply from Cumming. Chairman Jim Boff said he's written the Governor and Attorney General for help.
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There is still no end in sight to the Cumming-Forsyth County water war following an hour-long called meeting of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners Thursday that ended without a vote on the issue.
A 25-year contract that governed the price and amount of water the city sells to the county expired in May and the city has threatened to cut off the county's raw water supply if a new contract isn't signed by Oct. 1. Cumming Mayor Ford Gravitt said the city will continue to sell the county treated water at a rate of $2.50 per 1,000 gallons, but will not sell raw water at the old rate of 10 cents per 1,000 gallons without a signed contract.
Chairman Jim Boff and Commissioner Todd Levent say the city signed a "bullet point" agreement in May that would have resolved the matter but the city reneged on the deal.
"If they had just simply followed the bullet points that we’d agreed to, we’d have an agreement today," Levent said during Thursday's meeting.
At the last city council meeting, Gravitt said the one-page bullet point agreement "turned into a 14-page document from the county attorney."
Levent challenged that statement Thursday, saying it was city officials who turned the initial agreement into a 14-page draft that did not adhere to the terms on which both sides agreed. He specifically called into question a service delivery method the city included that, he says, was not a part of the negotiations.
Boff and Levent want to wait until the state Environmental Protection Division responds to a county request for an increase in its permitted withdrawals from 16 million gallons a day (MGD) to 26 (MGD).
Commissioners Patrick Bell and Levent engaged in a sometimes heated 45-minute debate, during which Bell said, "You’re going to end up in court is what’s going to happen."
Meanwhile, Boff said after the meeting he has written to Gov. Nathan Deal and Attorney General Sam Olens and the county's state delegation asking them to get involved.
"I believe Forsyth County is urgently in need of your assistance and intervention to help avoid not only a legal crisis, but possibly even a health and public safety crisis," Boff wrote.
Commissioners did approve payment of the city's water invoices from July and August, but at the urging of Attorney Ken Jarrard, agreed to pay them "under protest" since no agreement is in place. Jarrard also recommended that payment of the bill doesn’t change the county’s rights to challenge any future invoice.
William Evelyn Jr.
4:12 pm on Saturday, September 1, 2012
I say Gravitt needs to be punished. I hope Attorney General Olens slams him good.
Ron Seder
4:12 pm on Saturday, September 1, 2012
The AJC also has an article about this. The article says “County Commissioners Patrick Bell and Brian Tam pointed out that even with a water permit, it could take 10 years and millions of dollars to put up the facilities to draw the water to a county treatment plant.”
I do not believe it would take anything like 10 years to get it done. But it will take some time and I wish action had been started sooner. The county has known for a long time that the water contract was going to expire in May, 2012. There was a County Town Hall Meeting held on the subject on March 11, 2006 as a result of Brian Tam and the city suggesting an extension of the water contract that was going to expire in May, 2012. A video of that meeting can be viewed by going to the county website at "http://www.forsythco.com/video.asp?MeetingType=THM"; and then find the “City/County Water Contract Town Hall Meeting” video in the “Or see other videos:” section.
The AJC article also says that the Mayor states the city has supplied water at some of the lowest rates in the region.” However, the rates should have been lower than they have been because the county has made significant investments in the city’s water system through direct payments, past SPLOST distributions and the high price of water to the county.
Because the city is going to shut off water service on October 1, unless the county submits to the Mayor’s extortion demands, I urge the county to initiate legal action now.
Jack Gleason
4:12 pm on Saturday, September 1, 2012
The Forsyth County Tea Party is now rallying Citizens to participate in a March upon the Forsyth County Courthouse in downtown Cumming @ 2 P.M. Sunday Sept. 16th 2012 -- in either "Protest" or "Celebration" -- for where the situation has evolved to in terms of being resolved by Civic Leaders at that time. I'm hoping Cumming-Patch will follow this, but you may contact the Forsyth County Tea Party, see "Focus on Forsyth" at Facebook, or visit Aboutforsyth.com for details at they evolve too.
Hal Schneider
7:57 am on Sunday, September 2, 2012
There is no NEED for the County to rush out and build its own intake. The City has an intake that will provide for the combined needs of the City and County for YEARS to come. The only reason the County is contemplating its own intake is because the Mayor continues to use the City's ownership of the intake to extort as much money from the County as he can. If the Mayor simply engaged in a normal buyer/seller contract, where the buyer is willing to buy something from the seller that they NEED at a reasonable price, in spite of the monopolistic position of the City, the County would not need to concern itself at all with finding another source of raw water or building its own intake for many years to come. However, since the Mayor wants to use water as a means of extortion, the County has no choice but to find a way to remove this tool from the Mayors weapons locker.
And let's not forget that the EPD has issued a permit to the County for 14MGD of raw water from Lake Lanier. The Mayor does not have he authority to limit our raw water withdrawal, nor does it have the authority to increase its own permit to cover the needs of the City and County combined.