EPA Tells DeKalb To Clean Up Its Act
Decatur Metro | December 14, 2010Yum. Sewage leakage.
The AJC reports in an extensive article this morning that the Environmental Protection Agency has mandated that DeKalb County upgrade its 50 year-old sewage system after over 800 leaks have been reported over the past 5 years. Failure to do so will result in daily fines of $37,500 a day.
The DeKalb County Commission is scheduled to vote on over $1 billion in sewer and water system upgrades at tonight’s commission meeting. Many DeKalb residents have voiced passionate displeasure at what this will mean for their water bills – which will increase dramatically over the next couple years – citing the recession and financial difficulties. Unfortunately, raw sewage waits for no man or woman.
And it seems like Decatur has been ground zero for pipe failure lately…
Two weeks ago, the county had to close portions of Second Avenue in Decatur after pipes broke and 40,800 gallons of sewage spilled, according to water department records. Last week, the county had to suspend water service for 12 hours to residents near Glenwood Road and Parkhill Drive in Decatur after a water main burst. And a rail section in Decatur is closed this weeks to repair a water main under the tracks.
Yuck.
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I need clarification. A water main is clean water heading towards faucets, right? So what happened near Glennwood/Parkhill and at the RR tracks was clean water spill, right? But the pipes bursting at Second Avenue was dirty water, right?
Just wondering how yucked out to be.
Some things like sewage and roads and disease control are just plain “the common good” and worth the taxes IMHHLO (in my humble, hopelessly liberal opinion). We all suffer, rich and poor, industrious and lazy, if the water is bad, the air smells, goods and people can’t move freely, and plague or cholera are rampant. (But I do admit that HOW one serves the common good with taxes is unfortunately way too variable.)
Good article in this week’s CrossRoadsNews that points out the County needs to re-do projections on future growth impact (calculated 10 yrs ago):
http://crossroadsnews.com/view/full_story/10613218/article-Commissioners-set-to-vote-on–1-4-billion-water-plan?instance=lead_story
I sincerely hope Dekalb County considers green infrastructure alternatives to simply engineering their way out of sewer overflow problems.