Water to flow at Centennial Olympic Park, GWCC

The Fountain of Rings soon won’t be the only water feature in operation at Centennial Olympic Park.

After months of working on two wells beneath the downtown gathering spot and the adjacent Georgia World Congress Center, officials announced Tuesday that water would again flow freely throughout the 200-acre campus by September and at Centennial as early as June.

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Louie Favorite/lfavorite@ajc.com

Centennial Olympic Park was given a waiver and allowed to turn on the Fountain of Rings in spring 2008.

• The drought in Georgia

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“It’s imperative that we maintain our green space,” Mark Banta, Centennial Olympic Park’s general manager, told members of the GWCC Authority, the facility’s governing body. “We can’t let our ground be diminished.”

Water features on the GWCC campus have been turned off since October 2007, when the state restricted outdoor watering because of the drought. Centennial Olympic Park was given a waiver and allowed to turn on the Fountain of Rings in spring 2008 because it is considered a “zero-depth” pool — recirculating water that is treated.

Centennial Olympic Park lost almost $500,000 in plant materials to the restrictions on watering, Banta said. Officials also spent $100,000 resealing and caulking the ponds because the lack of use caused them to crack.

There are several water features on the GWCC campus, which also includes the Georgia Dome and several parking facilities. Ponds, fountains and babbling brooks dot the area. In addition, the campus includes acres of trees, shrubs, seasonal flowers and bermuda sod.

The GWCC Authority, a state agency, spent $143,000 and $292,000, respectively, on the park and GWCC wells, Banta said. The park well will pump 12.5 gallons of water per minute, and the GWCC well will output 54 gallons.

Banta said the GWCC also will harvest water by installing cisterns below the red parking deck to the Dome and convention center.

Board members were supportive of the plan.

“I think we should sell (the water) back to the city,” board member Tim Lowe said.