A draft consent order is giving pause as Augusta officials prepare to renew and extend Tuesday the city’s 2009 contract with ESG Operations to operate the James B. Messerly Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The draft order, a work in progress that has not yet been signed or finalized, was confirmed to exist by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Environmental Protection Division. It’s based on findings contained in a federal EPA inspection report from a July 2024 inspection that documented several operational and structural concerns at the Doug Barnard Parkway facility.
Extending ESG’s contract for five years goes before the Augusta Commission Tuesday for approval after passing committee last week without discussion.
Former Commissioner Moses Todd, who has raised concerns about operations at Messerly, is scheduled to speak on the matter during Tuesday’s meeting. The remainder of Tuesday agenda items are on the commission’s consent agenda except one action item, a discussion of SPLOST 9 distribution with Hephzibah and Blythe.
The inspection report, obtained by The Augusta Press, was generated during an assessment of the plant’s compliance with the Clean Water Act and Messerly’s pollutant discharge permit. The facility is operating under an administratively extended permit since the permit expired last year.
Findings in the inspection report
Findings in the inspection report, issued by the EPA Region 4 Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division, include:
- The plant had periods of noncompliance including “significant” noncompliance related to exceedances in flow amounts, dissolved oxygen, ammonia and other substances
- Repeated overflows, including a 6.6 million gallon event on Aug. 30, 2024
- Seven of eight clarifiers, which are used to remove solids, were non-operational at the time of the inspection
- The roof of Digester 5, where organisms are used to break down waste, had collapsed. Other digesters showed wear and tear
- A bypass pump, used to divert high flows into the constructed wetlands at Phinizy Swamp, was installed and discharging 70 million gallons per day, exceeding the city’s permitted average daily flow of 46 million gallons
The city’s relationship with ESG dates to 2009, when the commission replaced then-operator Operations Management International, which had operated Messerly for a decade. In the last time the service was put out for bids, ESG’s first year was priced at $5.3 million.
Since then, Augusta has spent about $115 million with the Macon company, according to the city check register. In 2021, ESG merged with Inframark to become Inframark-ESG.
The current proposed annual contract price is approximately $7.7 million, and includes additional services of creating a fats-oils-grease or FOG management program, maintaining the city’s water tanks and doing work at Augusta’s Fort Eisenhower water treatment plant.
Last year, the city authorized a bond issue that included around $20 million for improvements at Messerly.
