Two votes for water plant project

At Oconee County’s request, Pioneer Rural Water District will accept an alternate piece of property on which to build its treatment plant. The board of directors convened after a closed-door meeting yesterday and voted to accept 70 acres on what General Manager Terry Pruitt called “the other side of the creek” at the county’s Golden Corner Commerce Park near Fair Play. That’s substitute, he said, for 25 acres elsewhere inside the park. Last night County Councilman Paul Corbeil referred to County Administrator Scott Moulder a reporter’s question as to why the switch. Pruitt told his board of directors the change will require the project’s engineers to redesign the plans and a re-permitting from state authorities. After yesterday’s meeting, Pruitt told 96.3/WGOG NEWS it’s likely to mean a six-month delay. The Pioneer board followed that vote with agreement for the Anderson Joint Regional Water System to sponsor Pioneer’s intake from Lake Hartwell and allocate Pioneer as much as three million gallons of water a day from the lake until Pioneer is able to secure its own agreements with the Army Corps of Engineers. Pioneer had previously approached Hart County, Georgia for an intake, but was turned down.