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The City of Yatesville has been cited by the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) for not having a permit while doing water line and fire hydrant installations earlier this year. In June the City Council approved a contract for $80,718.50 for water lines to be tied in on Yatesville Barnesville Road and the installation of four new fire hydrants. The majority of the work has been completed.

At the council’s September 11, meeting, Mayor Cecil Moncrief informed them that the city has been cited for not having engineering drawings approved by the EPD and a permit issued before the work was done.

“We did the right thing. We sent water samples to Atlanta to be tested to be sure they were okay, and we got our hand slapped by the EPD, because we did not have a permit from them to install the water main,” said Moncrief.

The mayor said he talked with an EPD representative in Macon and was told to just sketch out what was done, since the majority of the work was already done. Moncrief complied, but said he then received a letter stating that EPD had to have an engineer’s drawing.

“So we had to get an engineer to come in and do the plan, the whole nine yards – how many feet of water line we put in, how many meters we put in, how many fire hydrants we put in, what he used, what the specifications were that he used,” Moncrief said. “Ronnie (Fire Chief Ronnie Riggins) took the fire truck down there one day and did a pressure test, which worked fine. But we had to pay S. J. Reeves $5,950 for engineering plans. It will come out of our SPLOST funds.”

Moncrief said the city then received a letter from EPD saying they had reviewed all the plans sent in and accepted everything except the pressure test.

“They will not accept the test from the fire truck,” said Moncrief. “It has to be a certified hydrostatic pump. They had to find something, so that’s what they found. Basically, out of everything they could have found, that was one of the simplest things to find. The test was done Friday by the contractor, we got it to the engineer, he sent it down there, and we won’t know till tomorrow if everything is fine. If they give the go-ahead, he is going to start tying the water meters in, and we’ll be completely finished with that project.”