Georgia DNR Waiting On Caterpillar Application For Discharge Permit For Oconee County/Clarke County Site

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is waiting for Caterpillar to submit its application for a pretreatment permit for discharge from the plant it has under construction at its site straddling the Oconee and Clarke county borders.

Bill Noell, unit manager for the industrial permitting unit of DNR, told me on Friday that Caterpillar has said it has filed the permit request, but he said DNR has not yet received it.

Noell said that DNR and Caterpillar have had a number of discussions about the volume and nature of discharge, including the possibility of a request by Caterpillar for a variance from some of the pretreatment standards.

Noell said he had heard discharge figures of from 40,000 to more than 100,000 gallons per day.

The figure is important because of the limited capacity of the Oconee County sewage system.

The county has used some of the capacity for the proposed Presbyterian Homes of Georgia facility for Rocky Branch Road.

Review of that project has been delayed because of an advertising error.

For details on the Caterpillar and PHG projects, go to Oconee County Observations.