Aqua-Terra was built in 1997 on 7 acres of previously undisturbed land, located 30 miles east of downtown Atlanta. Prior to start up of operations, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division issued Aqua-Terra an exemption from the hazardous waste regulations. This exemption, which was the first one ever issued in the State of Georgia, allows Aqua-Terra to treat gasoline contaminated water as non-hazardous waste.

Aqua-Terra also has an industrial wastewater permit (Permit No. 006) issued by the City of Covington. This permit allows Aqua-Terra to discharge treated wastewater to the Newton County sewer system.

Aqua-Terra’s owners have many years experience in the environmental consulting and engineering business. This background was useful in designing an environmentally secure treatment facility.

Aqua-Terra has 4 ground water monitor wells located at strategic locations on the property. These wells are checked on a regular basis for hydrocarbon contaminants.

Aqua-Terra’s storage and treatment tanks are located within an enclosed concrete containment area. This area has a drain system that allows for spills to be pumped through Aqua-Terra’s treatment system. The volume of the concrete containment area is more than 150% of the volume of the largest storage tank.

Treatment Process

Aqua-Terra’s treatment system starts with a screening device followed by a sand trap. Fluids then flow into a 30,000 gallon oil/water separator. Trucks with petroleum waters unload into this separator tank via gravity. The wastewater is then either pumped or gravity fed to a series of storage and/or process tanks in Aqua-Terra’s tank farm.

Certain waste streams are unloaded into tanks and are segregated so they can be processed at slower rats. All water is treated in aerated biological tanks and filtered. Water can also be treated using activated carbon and stripping towers. All treated water flows into aerated holding tanks. Several laboratory tests are run on this water in accordance with the requirements of Aqua-Terra’s permit prior to discharge into the County’s sanitary sewer system.

This water is further treated at the publicly owned treatment plant. The effluent from the County’s plant is piped to a land application process in Newton County. The water processed by Aqua Terra is 100% recycled, thus protecting surface water bodies from environmental degradation.