Wastewater / Septic Basics

There are 233 wastewater treatment facilities in the District. Of these, there are 103 publicly owned facilities with a total capacity of 723 million gallons per day (MGD). This includes facilities that are currently on-line and those that will be operating by 2005. In 2001 these facilities treated 565 MGD. The majority (87%) of publicly owned treatment facilities have advanced levels of treatment, and regularly produce better effluent quality than required by their permits. Treatment standards vary throughout the District depending upon site-specific conditions and the end-use of the returned flow.

Approximately 21% of the wastewater generated in the District is currently served by septic systems. Highly developed counties, such as DeKalb and Cobb, have less than 10% of housing units using septic systems. Developing counties range between 40% and 90% of housing units using septic systems, depending upon the availability of wastewater collections systems.

As of 2005 there are an estimated 526,000 septic systems in the District. Of these, 10% are commercial, schools or churches and the remaining 90% are residential. Based on these numbers it is estimated that 26% of the total housing units in the District are served by septic systems. The average number of septic system installed in the District per year is estimated at about 13,000 systems.

 Wastewater Acronyms

CMMS = Computerized Maintenance Management System
CMOM = Capacity, Management, Operations and Maintenance
CSO = Combined Sewer Overflow
I / I = Infiltration and Inflow
LAS = Land Application System
MGD = Million Gallons Per Day
MMF = Maximum Monthly Flow
NPDES = National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
SSO = Sanitary Sewer Overflow
TMDL = Total Maximum Daily Load
WLA = Waste Load Allocation
WPCP = Water Pollution Control Plant
WRC = Water Reclamation Center
WRF = Water Reclamation Facility
WWTP = Wastewater Treatment Plant