Winder, Georgia

4 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 WINDER , GEORGI A challenging to keep up with your utilities and things like that.” With all of its growth, Winder itself has had to grow and change in several ways to meet that demand, including annexing islands of unincorporated land into the city’s borders. They have also made plans for major infrastructure upgrades within the city. One of Winder’s biggest projects is in partnership with the nearby city of Auburn. The two cities have come together to find a solution to their mutual water storage shortage. “The City of Winder and the City of Auburn have teamed up and formed a partnership with a goal of developing a creative multi-jurisdictional, regional solution to the shortage of raw water storage in northeast Georgia,” explains Roger Wilhelm, Winder’s Utilities Director. “The project scope entails taking a very compact 78-acre site and converting an expanded rock quarry into a 1.1 billion gallon raw water storage pond with three water intakes and over 13 miles of large diameter pipeline.” The project’s water withdrawal permits have been issued by Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the physical work started within the quarry during the month of December 2020. The current permitted yield of the quarry project will be 4.59 million gallons per day (annual average) and should be fully operational in 2024. Wilhelm adds, “Winder is committed to efficiently managing our water resources to ensure safe, clean and reliable drinking water, while protecting streamflow and watersheds to ensure long term sustainability in our ecosystems, economy and quality of life. We also have many other capital projects in the works, as we are upgrading infrastructure to accommodate the strong growth that we are experiencing, and the many transportation projects happening in our area.” One of those other projects is a stormwater