DeKalb’s Sewer System Problems

Of all county responsibilities, there is nothing more important or expensive than maintaining our sewer pipes, water treatment plants and clean water delivery systems.  DeKalb County spends $1.3 billion a year and is responsible for maintaining these systems, but this priority seems to get missed in too many counties.

 

Jefferson County Alabama that includes Birmingham is the poster child for counties who ignore their sewer system maintenance.  They went bankrupt in a $3 billion sewer rebuild, water bills quadrupled and property values plummeted. To pay for this debacle, all county residents were forced to abandon their perfectly functional septic tanks and wells and become customers of the county water system.

 

The problem in DeKalb appears to be the aging sewer pipe system.  All of these old pipes are underground and under roads, are extremely expensive to replace and are everywhere.  DeKalb County’s failure to maintain these pipes on schedule needs to be corrected by getting this maintenance ahead of schedule. 

 

The cost of replacing these pipes will be paid through our water bills, so we are interested in DeKalb reducing expenses for other less critical county responsibilities.

 

The next few posts chronicle some history of DeKalb’s struggle to fix their sewer system plus an article about Jefferson County Alabama’s sewer system disaster.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader