ROSWELL, GA — The Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility, located west of the Chattahoochee River in Roswell, Georgia, serves as the largest wastewater treatment facility in North Fulton County, and is now handling the area’s most extensive service demands with its newly expanded treatment capacity. Fulton County officials have unveiled the completed $350 million expansion project, Fulton County's largest infrastructure investment to date. The project was successfully delivered by the joint venture of Archer Western and Brown & Caldwell using a progressive design-build approach, ensuring efficiency and collaboration throughout its execution. Archer Western is a subsidiary of The Walsh Group.

With this upgrade, the facility's treatment capacity will increase from 24 million gallons per day (MGD) to 32 MGD, employing flat-membrane treatment technology. This advanced system not only makes Big Creek the second-largest flat-membrane treatment facility in the United States, but also ensures that water returned to the Chattahoochee River meets the highest standards of cleanliness, contributing to environmental sustainability and improved water quality for the surrounding areas. The system combines biological treatment/nutrient removal with ultrafiltration membranes that filter out particles greater than 0.04 µm (about 1 millionth of an inch) in diameter. Facility expansion also includes a new liquids process with a headworks, inclusive of 6mm coarse screening and grit removal, primary clarification, fine screening at 2mm, biological nutrient removal with large bubble mixing and fine bubble diffusion, and UV disinfection.

“Since day one, Fulton County and the Archer Western/Brown and Caldwell team have always focused on what was best for the overall project and recognized that it was going to take a team effort to make this successful,” Archer Western Vice President David Walker said. “This team overcame challenges and remained engaged in all levels of management and delivered a high quality facility for the residents of Fulton County.”

The progressive design-build project broke ground in the summer of 2020, beginning with the excavation of 200,000 cubic yards of material. Nearly all of the excavated materials were recycled, screened, and reused on the site, resulting in a reduced carbon footprint and eliminating thousands of truckloads traveling to and from the plant and within the city of Roswell. Throughout the four year project, over 250 local craft workers performed over 1.3 million hours of work safely in the field, while Fulton County kept the existing plant operational.

Since its establishment in 1971, the Big Creek facility has grown significantly from its original capacity of 750,000 gallons per day. This latest expansion is designed to meet the community’s needs for the next 50 years, with the flexibility for further expansion up to 38 MGD. This foresight in design allows the facility to accommodate future growth, ensuring that North Fulton County’s wastewater treatment infrastructure is equipped for long-term service.

The upgraded facility also incorporates enhanced resilience features to ensure operational continuity in emergencies. A network of backup generators provides reliable power to maintain water treatment processes during outages, while the advanced membrane technology reduces the waste load to the river significantly. This level of treatment, paired with robust emergency readiness, supports both the community’s immediate needs and its environmental responsibility.