CORRECTION March 13, 2026, 6:53 p.m.: Clarifies fire chief offered to help LCDA find funding for purple pipe, not that it could not afford the pipe; adds specific steps LCDA is taking to mitigate flooding risks.
Liberty County doesn’t have enough wastewater treatment capacity to keep growing. It also doesn’t have enough water east of Interstate 95 to fight fires quickly.
Now, county leaders are discussing a solution to both problems: using recycled water from a proposed reclaimed water plant along Islands Highway and Fort Morris Road.
Since 2022, at least three homes have burned on Islands Highway, Trade Hill Road, and Clark Street, in large part because fire hydrants don’t extend all the way to the county’s east end. Instead, county firefighters must truck in water or draft it from creeks or swimming pools.
The Liberty County Development Authority’s proposed new water reclamation facility would process about 3 million gallons per day from tenants at Tradeport East and the adjacent planned Laurel View multi-use development. Future residents, which could number 20,000 people, make fire protection even more urgent.
The development authority says developers are helping fund the water facility plans — but it’s unclear where funding will come from for the miles of pipes needed for firefighters to access the recycled water.
What is needed?
Using recycled water for firefighting is something many municipalities across the U.S. employ — and it has been under discussion in Liberty County as far back as 2009.
To solve the water problem faced by firefighters east of I-95, the county would need about 17,500 feet of “purple pipe” specifically for reclaimed water systems, Liberty County Fire Chief Brian Darby said. The roughly 3.3-mile-long main line would run along Islands Highway, then Fort Morris Road, with smaller branches added later, he explained.
Georgia regulations allow recycled water for firefighting but require separate pipes, hoses, and tanker trucks.
The planned water reclamation plant would also need to use UV rays and chlorine to disinfect recycled water, technology that is part of the planned facility, then circulate it in cool underground pipes to discourage bacteria, according to the development authority. Fire crews would then need to keep pressure between 30 and 45 pounds per square inch to limit mist-containing germs that could be inhaled, the development authority said.
Darby said he was willing to help LCDA find funding for this infrastructure.
While reclaimed water can still contain bacteria, one study compared such recycled water quality to swimming pools or natural bodies of water — sources firefighters already use in areas without hydrants.
Other technical considerations include how plant operations would handle sudden firefighting demand and “potential water quality issues,” the development authority said.
Meredith Devendorf Belford, whose family’s historic home burned to the ground in 2022, told The Current GA she had heard of the plan. She would like the development authority to consider running reclaimed water through a wetland, such as Melon Bluff Nature Center’s, for additional filtration. The development authority confirmed it would meet with Belford next week about her ideas. (Editor note: Belford has been a donor to The Current.)
Sunbury residents have raised concerns that construction runoff while the Laurel View development is being built could affect nearby marshes and waterways, and that untreated water from the water treatment plant could spill during storms or floods. The development authority says the chance of flooding is “minimal” because the plant is out of the 500-year flood zone. Some other precautions it is taking include above-groud treatment tanks, elevated mechanical works and equipment, system redundancy for critical parts like pumps and screens, and backup power generators on site.
Opposition across county line
Across the county line, Bryan County Commissioner Gene Wallace has criticized the plans to build a reclamation plant altogether.
He worries, without citing evidence, that such a plant could discharge too much treated freshwater into the brackish tidal river system. “[LCDA’s] lack of planning for future growth is evident, and to decide that dumping millions of gallons of treated effluent in our pristine salt water is their solution is completely unacceptable,” Wallace wrote in a Facebook post.
The development authority has countered such fears by saying that Bryan County and Richmond Hill’s existing water treatment plans currently discharge into the Ogeechee River without issue. Bryan County pumps its own wastewater to the City of Richmond Hill’s Sterling Creek water reclamation facility, which uses technology similar to the LCDA’s smaller proposed plant.
Liberty officials say that they would use the proper technology to mitigate any harm.
LCDA Chair State Rep. Al Williams noted Bryan County built “two treatment facilities over the last 15 years, which allowed it to attract higher-wage employers, diversify its economy, and improve its quality of life.” Williams pointed to the difference in 2023 median household incomes between the two counties: Liberty County’s was $58,308, while Bryan County’s was $94,234.
Meanwhile, Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission Chair Phil Odom, who also serves on the Liberty Regional Water Resources Council and the Coastal Georgia Regional Water Planning Council, wrote the plant’s freshwater discharges could help restore the river’s brackish balance. He pointed to more than a century of groundwater withdrawals, which cut the flow of springs into the rivers.
Neither the Ogeechee Riverkeeper nor the advocacy organization One Hundred Miles has taken a formal position on the proposed plant. However, the Ogeechee Riverkeeper was highly critical of a request to expand the Laurel View development. In a Feb. 19, 2025 letter to the Coastal Regional Commission (CRC) the group noted construction would take place within 100- and 500-year floodplains, and that the proposed water treatment plant’s “construction and development should be specifically limited on actual availability, not planned or protected capacity.”
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