Ross tells how city keeps toilet paper out of rivers
The Rome Water and Sewer Division director explains the importance of the water treatment plant.
With all of the water flowing through Rome’s three rivers, Leigh Ross knows it is there for the taking, but his crews make sure it gets to the right place.
The city’s Water and Sewer Division director, Ross broke down the utility’s operating cycle, from taking water from the rivers to returning it to the ecosystem, during Thursday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Rome.
Ross said the introduction of water reclamation facilities, or sewer treatment plants, over the last 50 years have drastically changed the way the city approaches the rivers.
“By looking at the rivers, people have come to call them open sewers,” Ross said. “When I first came here that was pretty true.”
Ross said he remembers driving behind the levee when he was 16 and fishing for striped bass out of the river. “Every other cast I would have to knock toilet tissue off of my line,” he said.
At the time, Rome, like many other cities in Northwest Georgia, didn’t have a sewer treatment plant, according to Ross.
“It’s a wonder there were any fish in there,” Ross said.
No longer an “open sewer system,” Rome boasts two water reclamation facilities with the capacity to handle a total of 38 million gallons of wastewater per day.
Approximately 2.6 billion gallons of water were treated last year.
Ross said the Bruce Hamler Water Reclamation Facility on Black’s Bluff Road has been updated over the years to the point where it is worth close to $300 million.
“Rome’s invested a lot of money so I don’t pull in toilet tissue when I go fishing,” Ross said.
Still, Ross said there are constant challenges, including working to replace the aging metal two- inch water mains still found throughout the city.
He said federal environmental regulations are getting tougher as more studies are done on the status of the nation’s waterways.
Rome’s water service extends to some parts of unincorporated Floyd County for an overall area of 40 square miles, according to Ross.
Meanwhile, the city’s sewer service covers 150 square miles to include Shannon, Lindale, Coosa and Armuchee.
The city uses two intakes to bring in water — one on the Etowah River near Spider Webb Drive and the other on the Oostanaula River near Riverside Parkway.