Athens-Clark County | 9
state requirements of 25 feet, or in this
case, enacting 100 foot buffers on large
water bodies and 150 feet buffers on wa-
ters in industrial areas. “We knew water
was going to be a big ticket item ... we
have no acquifers nor desal plants, most
of our water comes from surface water, so
buffering would help keep development
from impacting these resources. And we
protected our floodplain and wetlands by
making sure no development would occur
in these spaces. That proved to be very
prudent in the years that followed when
we experienced eight years of drought,”
says Lonnee.
A little more than ten years ago, the
region created the Bear Creek Reservoir
which helps supply water to four separate
jurisdictions, yet Athens-Clark has sig-
nificantly diminished its reliance on that
resource through advancements in water
conservation. Water Conservation Coor-
dinator Marilyn Hall says advancements
in water conservation have led to a more
than 20 percent reduction in water use
throughout the county. Public campaigns,
workshops, and practices such as the cap-
ture of rainwater and air conditioning
condensation for reuse in irrigation have
helped in that process, yet Athens-Clark
has scored major benefits from water rec-
lamation infrastructure.
Athens-Clark’s water reclamation sys-
tem includes three facilities that can col-
lectively capture and treat 28 million gal-
lons of wastewater per day before safely
returning it to the environment. When
wastewater first arrives at a facility, it first
goes through a stage allowing screens to
capture any large materials, such as pa-
per or plastic trash, before the water is
pumped through a grit system to remove
small particles. The water is subjected to
filtration and aeration, a process involv-
ing mixture with oxygen which allows
microscopic organisms to grow which
through their own biological processes,
help remove some of the pollutants.
The same system allows biosolids to
settle to the bottom of tanks, which is cap-
tured and then trucked to a compost facil-
ity at the Athens-Clark Municipal Solid
Waste Landfill, where it gets mixed with
shredded yard waste to produce compost
– who says waste has to go to waste. Once
the waste water has been cleaned, it under-
