Davis Mill Creek
Cantrell Flats Water Treatment Plant & Belltown Diversion

Under the agreement with the EPA, GSHI has refurbished the Cantrell Flats Water Treatment Plant in the Davis Mill Creek Watershed. Since completion of the refurbishment in late 2002, the plant is operating more efficiently and is removing more of the contaminant loading of Davis Mill Creek, which flows directly into the Ocoee River. Presently, it removes iron and other metals weighing more than a 2,000 lbs. each day.

More than 900,000 kilograms (two million pounds) of metals were removed in the first year of operation. This dramatic reduction of metals loading to the Ocoee River translates into clearer water with less visible staining downstream at the Olympic Whitewater Center. This significant reduction in metals loading should soon be reflected in improvements in the biologic community.

Under that same agreement, GSHI is diverting Belltown Creek that has good water quality upstream of its confluence with Davis Mill Creek.

In 2004, GSHI installed the largest polyethylene pipe ever used in the United States. The pipe diverts water from Belltown Creek around the upper part of Davis Mill Creek.The 63-inch diameter pipe can carry water from a storm producing 5.7 inches of rainfall in 24 hours; on average, such a storm might occur every 10 years. Each section of the large pipe is 65 feet long and weighs about seven tons. Pipe sections were moved into place with a large crane, and then joined by heating and fusing the ends under pressure. The pipe, which is designed to last 100 years above ground, was buried to protect it from weather damage and help it last indefinitely.

Water from Belltown Creek above the mining areas is not contaminated and does not need treatment. A previously installed 20-inch pipe carries this water to a point below Davis Mill containment dam 3, just above the Cantrell Flats water treatment plant. Davis Mill Creek's natural flow, which contains acid and other substances, is collected behind dam 3 and pumped to Cantrell Flats for treatment.

GSHI put in the larger pipe because the 20-inch pipe can handle only the normal flow from Belltown Creek, not the 10-year storm flow. As specified in an EECA cleanup decision approved by the EPA in 2003, diverting Belltown Creek keeps clean water from mixing with the water in Davis Mill Creek that requires treatment. Clean water form the Gypsum Pond has been diverted through 7,000 feet of smaller pipe to the larger pipe, which will carry the pond flow downstream. The gypsum Pond supports aquatic life and does not require cleanup.

Also in 2004, Davis Mill dams 1 and 2 were raised five feet and converted from silt retention to flood containment. Dam 3 is the pump intake structure for treatment of Davis Mill Creek. The backwaters of all three dams have been dredged and approximately 1,200 truckloads of material were removed, placed in a temporary storage area above the dams, and treated with lime. The Belltown diversion and Davis Mill treatment project keeps at least 98 percent of contaminants from Davis Mill Creek out of the Ocoee River.

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