Commissioner Rob Hunter has announced that the 10-million-gallon Custer Avenue Storage and Dechlorination Facility, part of the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Consent Decree program, is substantially complete. The underground facility, along with the existing 34-million-gallon Intrenchment Creek Storage Tunnel, gives the City an overflow storage capacity of 44 million gallons. CSOs will be stored in the tunnel until they can be transferred to the Intrenchment Creek Water Reclamation Center for treatment and discharge into Intrenchment Creek.
The dechlorination system will allow the plant to take chlorine, which is part of the treatment process, out of the flows before they are discharged, thus protecting fish and wildlife in and near the receiving stream.
Originally designed as an above-ground structure, the facility was redesigned as an underground storage cavern based on numerous meetings and consultations with nearby communities. The $36 million project is part of the City’s program to comply with the 1998 consent decree by reducing pollution in the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries.
“This project is a reflection of our commitment to our customers and to the river,” said Commissioner Rob Hunter. “Like our other Clean Water Atlanta projects, it came in on time and on budget.”