Franklin Springs wastewater plant remains in play after Pilgrim’s pulls out, opponents seek pause

Franklin Springs’ proposed wastewater treatment plant on the Broad River remained in the works in early May 2025, according to Now Georgia, even after Pilgrim’s Pride publicly said it would not build a poultry rendering facility in the city. Mayor Lee Moore told the outlet that no Pilgrim’s plant was coming to Franklin Springs, but said the separate wastewater proposal would continue. The reported development left opponents facing the same central question: whether a much larger treatment plant should proceed without the industrial customer whose possible arrival had intensified local alarm.

At stake is both the future scale of Franklin Springs’ wastewater system and what that capacity could enable along the Broad River. Now Georgia reported an estimated construction cost of $26 million to $30 million and capacity of up to 1.5 million gallons a day, compared with the city’s existing 100,000-gallon-per-day plant. Residents and watershed advocates fear the facility could make room for industrial discharges; city leaders say it is infrastructure for homes, businesses and anticipated growth. The disagreement is consequential because Pilgrim’s withdrawal does not settle whether another industrial user might seek service later.

Public concern grew as the possibility of a Pilgrim’s rendering plant became known in early spring. At Franklin Springs’ April 15 council meeting, residents used the public-comment period to urge a pause in the wastewater proposal; one resident called it a $32 million project, while other residents also spoke about the plan. Later, more than 50 people reportedly attended an April 29 Franklin County Board of Commissioners work session and nearly a dozen spoke against construction. The county’s involvement stems from an intergovernmental agreement with Franklin Springs, but reporting described the city as leading the project. Pilgrim’s subsequent announcement that it would look elsewhere in Georgia removed that proposed facility from Franklin Springs, not the wastewater project itself.

Opponents, including local residents, the Broad River Watershed Association and groups identified in Now Georgia’s reporting as Save Broad River and Stop the Rendering, have pressed officials to reconsider the project. Their concerns center on possible harm to river water quality and on a large plant’s proximity to homes and Emmanuel University; those are concerns and predictions, not findings that pollution has occurred. Some downstream counties have passed resolutions asking Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division to consider possible environmental effects, Now Georgia reported. Moore, meanwhile, has said the city’s 1970s-era plant is already operating at its daily capacity and portrayed the proposed facility as a decades-long solution for citizens, businesses and growth. Franklin County Commission Chair Courtney Long told the outlet that the county had limited ability to stop a city-led plan after the agreement was signed.

The Broad River plant remains a proposal rather than a completed facility. Now Georgia reported that construction was expected to take about a year and a half and that the city intended to rely primarily on bonds, but those were reported plans, not final terms established by a recorded Franklin Springs council action. The April 15 council minutes document public comments and a request for a pause; they do not record approval or rejection of the plant, a construction contract, financing, groundbreaking or work beginning. Cost estimates also differ: the April speaker cited $32 million, while Now Georgia reported $26 million to $30 million. Pilgrim’s withdrawal and the plant’s reported continuing status are news reports, not a documented government decision.

No later official action or scheduled public step is documented after the April 15 Franklin Springs meeting. The next consequential record would be a city or county action addressing the intergovernmental agreement, project financing, construction authorization or opponents’ request to pause the proposal. Until then, it remains undecided whether the city will alter the scale, financing or timing of the facility, and whether any future industrial customer will pursue service from it.