Archived story
As originally published
Franklin Springs’ proposed wastewater treatment plant on the Broad River remained in the works in May 2025, according to Now Georgia, despite Pilgrim’s Pride’s announcement that 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, while the separate wastewater proposal would continue. That leaves opponents’ demand for officials to pause or reconsider the plan unanswered by a recorded council action.
The fight concerns how much wastewater capacity Franklin Springs should build and what that capacity could mean for the Broad River and future development. Now Georgia reported an estimated construction cost of $26 million to $30 million and potential capacity of up to 1.5 million gallons a day, far above the city’s existing 100,000-gallon-per-day plant. Residents fear the facility could enable industrial discharges; city leaders have described it as long-term infrastructure for homes, businesses and growth.
Concern intensified after discussion of a possible Pilgrim’s rendering operation raised questions about whether a larger treatment plant could serve poultry-related industry. At Franklin Springs’ April 15 council meeting, residents used public comment to oppose the wastewater proposal and question statements about contract negotiations. Later that month, Now Georgia reported, more than 50 people attended a Franklin County commission work session and nearly a dozen spoke against the project. Pilgrim’s subsequent decision to bypass Franklin Springs removed that specific prospective facility, but not the wastewater proposal or the broader dispute over its future use.
Opponents, including local residents and groups associated with Save Broad River and Stop the Rendering, have urged officials to reconsider the agreement and raised concerns about pollution, industrial waste and the plant’s location near homes and Emmanuel University. Those are public objections, not findings that the plant would cause those impacts. Moore has said the city’s aging plant is already at daily capacity and argued that additional wastewater service is necessary. Franklin County Commission Chair Courtney Long told Now Georgia that the county had limited ability to stop a plan led by Franklin Springs under an intergovernmental agreement signed earlier in 2025.
The Broad River plant remains a proposal, not a completed facility. Now Georgia reported that the project was expected to take roughly a year and a half to complete and that the city intended primarily to use bonds for funding, but those details are reported plans rather than final terms established in a recorded council action. The April 15 minutes document public comments; they do not record council approval, rejection, a construction contract, financing, a groundbreaking or work beginning. Pilgrim’s withdrawal also does not establish whether another industrial customer would ever seek service.
The next consequential public step would be an official agenda item or action by Franklin Springs, Franklin County or another relevant government body addressing the intergovernmental agreement, financing, permits, construction or the call for a pause. Until such action is documented, residents do not know whether the agreement will change, what the final price and funding source would be, whether elected officials will formally answer the objections, or when—if ever—the proposed Broad River facility will be built.