Guyton City Council has taken one of the steps necessary as it continues to go ahead with plans with the city’s own wastewater treatment plant.

Council members agreed to draw down more than $997,000 from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority in order to complete the purchase of 265 acres from Copper Station Holdings. That tract is the secondary of the two parcels the city is buying in order to build its planned 500,000 gallon per day sewage treatment plant.

The total amount of the GEFA loan is $13.3 million.

Some Riverside Drive residents questioned where the plant would be located.

“There’s a lot of concerns about the wastewater treatment plant going out there,” said D.L. Rollins, whose grandfather Freddie Rollins owns land adjacent to land the city intends to buy. “A lot of that is why is that the place for it. Why not somewhere else?”

Alderman Phillip King said he and Mayor Michael Garvin met with Freddie Rollins to explain to him where the wastewater treatment plant would be placed and that it would not be going in on his side.

“We assured him it will not be on that side of the property,” King said.

King said between 200 to 300 acres of the tract going toward the Ogeechee River will be left like it is. The city intends to fence in the property and put in a walking area.

“The plant will be set so far back, you probably won’t be able to see it,” he said.

The city searched for four years for the right site for its planned wastewater treatment plant.

“The sandy soil out there is what we need for the spray field,” King said, “and that soil is tops.”

He also said the wastewater will be treated to reuse standards and spray for the sprayfield will not come into contact with people.

Guyton city leaders and representatives from the Ogeechee Riverkeeper organization will hold a workshop on the wastewater treatment plant plans June 9 at 7 p.m. at the Guyton Civic Center.