Coweta County Sewer and Drain Service: Local Rules

Georgia Sewer clears, inspects and repairs the private side of sewer and water lines for homes served by the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority in Coweta County. When the trouble is in the authority's public sewer, CCWSA handles it, and because its published rules don't fix where its maintenance ends at every address, we tell you when to ask the authority before any digging near the street.

Across much of Coweta County, public sewer is far less common than public water. The county's water and sewer authority supplies drinking water to tens of thousands of customers but sewer to only a few thousand (CCWSA), so before you call anyone about a backup or a soggy yard, find out whether your home is on public sewer at all.

If it is, the authority's sewer use ordinance and development standards set the rules described below. If it is not, the county health department's septic rules apply instead.

The Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority (CCWSA) was created by the Georgia General Assembly in 2001 and took over ownership and operation of the county's water and sewer systems on June 6, 2007. It treats wastewater at three plants, Arnco, Sargent and Shenandoah, and makes drinking water at the B.T. Brown plant. Its About page counts its sewer customers in the low thousands and its water customers near 30,000, which means most of the authority's water customers are not on its sewer.

To confirm, look for a sewer charge on your CCWSA bill, or check your address on the authority's online water and sewer map (Mapping & Engineering). New service can be requested online or at the main office on Corinth Road in Newnan (FAQs). Inside Newnan city limits, sewer usually comes from Newnan Utilities, and Senoia runs its own system.

Coweta County's Building Permits and Inspections department issues permits for plumbing, electrical, heating and air, housing and other work, and inspects construction against the adopted codes; applications and inspection requests can be made online. Several cities, including Newnan and Senoia, run their own building departments.

The sewer connection itself needs a separate building sewer permit. Under the ordinance, no one may uncover, connect to or alter a public sewer without a written permit; owners apply on a CCWSA form and pay the permit and inspection fee from the authority's fee schedule, and the applicant must notify the authority when the building sewer is ready for inspection. An old building sewer may serve a new building only after it is examined and tested. Whoever digs should first contact Georgia 811, which asks for a locate request at least three business days ahead (Georgia 811); state law makes the request mandatory before digging with machines (dig law). If the job needs a permit, we tell you before work starts.

CCWSA's FOG program explains that grease washed down a drain sticks to pipes on your property and in the street, that garbage disposals only shred it into smaller pieces, and that detergents claiming to dissolve grease may just pass it down the line. Its advice: scrape food and grease into the trash, wipe pans with a dry paper towel before washing, pour cooled grease into a lidded can for the garbage, never use hot water to flush grease away, and never pour grease into a storm drain or onto the ground.

Rainwater is barred by ordinance. Roof downspouts, foundation drains, areaway drains and other surface runoff or groundwater may not be connected to a building sewer unless approved for polluted surface drainage, and no one may discharge stormwater, roof runoff, subsurface drainage, swimming pool drainage or condensation into the sewer unless the authority's chief executive authorizes it (ordinance). What not to flush or pour covers wipes and other bathroom items.

Because so many homes are off the sewer, the ordinance's septic section matters. Septic tanks must be built, repaired and maintained under plans approved by the health officer and kept in sanitary working order. For an existing single-family home, sewer counts as available when the main floor can drain by gravity to a sewer line in a public right-of-way or easement passing the property, and an owner abutting a public sewer within 100 feet of the property line must connect within 30 days of official notice (ordinance).

Septic permits and records are kept by the Coweta County environmental health office, which the Department of Public Health lists at 28 East Washington Street in Newnan (DPH). See septic or sewer: how to tell if you are not sure which you have.

For homes on CCWSA sewer, our technicians handle drain cleaning and main sewer line cleaning for backups, sewer camera inspection to find where a problem sits, sewer line repair and replacement of the building sewer, and cleanout installation and repair. On the water side, we do water line repair between the meter and the house. To book a visit, call Georgia Sewer at (404) 482-2527 or request service.