Sewer master plan meeting

Individuals with interest in the future of Oconee County sewer service took part in an approximate 90-minute meeting at Seneca where they clued in to a work in progress that addresses the future of sewer across the county and in a part of western Anderson County adjoining the Oconee line.  Those individuals are considered stakeholders in where piped sewer is laid in the county, and where it is not.  And, in Oconee County, according to Katherine Amidon, planner for Bolton and Menk, there are swaths of county landscape, including farm property and the national forest, where sewer is not welcomed or considered feasible.  The stakeholders were not surprised to hear that an analysis by Bolton and Menk and Weston and Sampson indicates that the best sections to run new sewer are the triangular area formed by Seneca, Walhalla, and Westminster and including area along Lake Keowee.  To reach such conclusions, the planners project that based on growth trends, Oconee County could expect a population increase by the year 2045 to approximately 120,502 residents.  They think the county’s population by next year could exceed the 90 thousand mark, reflecting what looks like a continuous migration of new homeowners.  As Amanda Brock, the county administrator, put it from her seat in yesterday’s meeting room:  “We have been discovered.”  An open-ended question is whether the demand for sewer will require the expansion of the county’s only treatment plant at Seneca or whether new plants be required, say, in the Martin Creek section between Seneca and Clemson or in the Beaverdam Creek area adjoining western Anderson County.