Residents balk at $1 billion water, sewer spending plan
- 12/8/10
- Categorized in: DeKalb News
If DeKalb County does not upgrade its aging water and sewer system soon, the repairs will cost more than the $1.4 billion officials say it will cost if the work is done right away. That’s what county officials said during one of several recent public hearings on a proposed rate hike to fix the system.
“We are unfortunately now at that critical juncture where most of the aged pipes …really are on borrowed time,” said Ted Rhinehart, deputy chief operating officer for the county’s infrastructure group. “We can’t avoid the major improvements.”
Under the proposed hike, water and sewer rates would increase 13 percent each year for three years beginning in 2012 to help finance the capital improvements. That would mean customers with county water and sewer services currently using 6,000 gallons per month would see their rates increase from $59.52 in 2010 to $100.60 in 2014.
DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis told the county’s Chamber of Commerce on Monday that the water and sewer system is a basic necessity that must be maintained.
“The cost of groceries has gone up, but we’ve got to eat. The cost of gasoline fuel has gone up, but for most of us, we’ve still got to get around,” Ellis said. “The cost of our water and sewer infrastructure means that our water and sewer rates are going to go up. However, we’ve still got to be able to drink the water and we’ve got to flush the toilets.”
Even with the increases, DeKalb County’s rates would be fair and reasonable when compared to those in surrounding counties and municipalities, Rhinehart said. Comparable customers in Clayton and Gwinnett counties currently pay approximately $9 and $10 more per month than DeKalb customers, while Atlanta customers pay about $77 more.
During a public hearing last week, Gil Turman, president of the South DeKalb Neighborhood Association, said the billion-dollar project is a massive undertaking that would adversely affect senior residents, people on fixed incomes and the unemployed.
“That’s a lot of money,” Turman said. “Folks can hardly pay their house notes, can hardly pay their rent.” Turman said the county should meet with residents and find alternatives to the rate hike to make the capital improvements without residents suffering financially and losing their homes.
John Evans, president of the DeKalb County NAACP, said he thought the capital improvement plan is a good plan, but questioned whether the time is right given the county’s current economic state.
“What would happen to the county if they postponed this decision for a later date?” Evans asked. “I don’t think the county would fold up and go away because we didn’t do it now.”
Evans said that if residents could vote on the upgrades they would vote against any new taxes, fees and upgrades. The commission should consider other funding options.
“The key in my opinion is we don’t need to consider raising water rates,” Evans said.
In addition to the rate hike, the improvements to the water and sewer system would also be funded by $28.4 million in federal bonds that the DeKalb County Commission voted last month to issue.
The improvements to the water and sewer system would include:
• $378 million to rebuild, upgrade and expand the Snapfinger Wastewater Treatment Plant. Most of the components of this plant are past their usefulness, Rhinehart said.
• $65 million for the Polebridge Wastewater Treatment Plant.
• $38 million to upgrade the Scott Candler Water Treatment Plant.
• $179 million to improve parts of the water distribution system.
• $600 million to update the wastewater collection system.
• $82 million to start water reuse and to return treated wastewater to the Chattahoochee River, per state water planning requirements.
• $36 million for vehicles and equipment for the improvement project.
The county had intended to make these improvements beginning in 2008 increasing water and sewer bills 16 percent each year from 2008-10. But the sluggish economy and persistent drought combined to decrease demand on the utilities, thus lowering the revenue from the utility system. Instead of using the funds from the rate increase to make the capital improvements, the county had to use the money to maintain the status quo.
“The money that we expected to get, we never realized,” said Francis Kung’u, director of watershed management for the county. Revenue has been down about 15 percent over the past three years.
DeKalb County’s water and sewer system, which serves more than 730,000 people and 20,000 businesses, has about 5,200 miles of water and sewer lines, one treatment facility for drinking water and two for waste water.
Since 2006, there have been 836 county sewer spills. And every time there is a spill, the county gets fined. On Nov. 30, a manhole on Second Avenue in Decatur was washed away due to a storm, causing a 40,000-gallon spill.
Kung’u said the upgrades, which will take at least five years to implement, should not be delayed again because constantly patching the system is expensive and further delays will add to that cost and could jeopardize the availability of water in the county.
“We’re a business that cannot go out of business,” Kung’u said.
What I totally disagree on, is the whole system being repaired by DEKALB WATERSHED MANAGEMENT, OR ANY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS. They do shotty repair work, All of the workers who are employed by DEKALB COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS, need to be totally retrained. They never finish a job, leave the job in worse shape that before the problem arose. I do not know who taught this bunch of idiots on the patching of a street, but my dog does a better job of burying a bone. I am sure that my dog would be at smoothing the surface of an area than the PUBLIC WORKS of DEKALB COUNTY. The workmanship of the work is the sorriest it can get.
DC PUBLIC WORKS did a "patch repair job" of First Avenue in Tucker that turned out to be the poorest excuse for a patch job of asphalt that I have ever seen. My two year son could have done a far superior job than the PUBLIC WORKS of DEKALB COUNTY. There are gouge marks from a backhoe or some other heavy piece of equipment, pot holes have developed where no enough asphalt was supposed to put, more bumps that before DCPW ever started.
If the above is the shotty type of work now, one can imagine what a new sewer and drainage system will be like after spending zillions of taxpayer dollars.
I suggest that DEKALB COUNTY ought let the professionals at the companies that specialize in sewer construction than let the idiots at DEKALB COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS handle anything that involves construction.
If yoy want DEKALB COUNTY to be the county of the 70's, where there was beautiful landscaping, clean streets, REPAIRS THAT FIXED FIRST TIME, a form of government that never drove the taxpayer into bankruptcy, very rarely raised taxes, didn't have commission that all they knew how to do was spend, spend, and spend some more, then lets get out a vote the next time and get rid of all of the parasite idiots who are perpetruly thumbing their nose at us taxpayers.
Dekalb got its own Sewer consent decree Monday!
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/epa-mandates-dekalb-clean-774943.html
Hopefully, there maybe hope on the horizon, but not in our lifetime.
1) Water is cheap in Dekalb compared to the City of Atlanta who has been FORCED through a consent decree to pay for fixes and upgrades to their wastewater treatment and collection system. If Dekalb doesn't act now to make similar improvements on its own, federal and state regulators WILL FORCE the same fixes and upgrades on Dekalb and its rate payers at an even higher cost than is planned now. As someone who keeps up with water issues and the regulation community, this WILL happen whether we want it to or not. But right now we still have a choice about how we do it. Plus, 836 reported sewage spills in 4 years and countless water main breaks! Think of how many go unreported across a network thousands of miles long!
2) This point goes to the heart of things, human behavior and consumption. If you use less water, your bill will be lower! The folks saying people can't afford a rate increase right not don't want to look at the other side of the equation. Perhaps you make conscious effort to change your water use habits and these increases will not affect you all that much. Spend the $2 to fix the leaky faucet, put two bricks in the toilet tank, turn off the faucet while you brush your teeth, wash your hands, etc., flush every other P. My family of three uses 1000 gallons a month on average. The county average of 6000 gallons a month blows my mind!
To summarize, these fixes and upgrades will have to happen one way or the other and soon. The South River fecal coliform fiasco from a few months ago brought even more attention from regulators about Dekalb's contaminated waters and crumbling sewers. They will force the fixes if we don't step up. Also, now is the time to make incremental changes in your water use habits. Save a little water here and there and then soon enough these rate increases don't affect you at all!!!
The CEO and DeKalb County Board of Commissioners have long forgotten that their number one concern and reponsability is the Safety of it's Citizens. POLICE and FIRE come first.
These new rates will push even more business out of DeKalb County.
Perhaps this FLEECING of the Business Sector along with the Average Citizen will bring out the RECALL petitions.
DeKalb County = A County in Crisis = DeKalb County = A County that has lost it's Moral Compass !
A PRUDENT and RESPONSIBLE DeKalb CEO and Board of Commissioners would postpone this until their is better economic recovery to lessen the impact upon the Citizens who are Less Fortunate and unable to pay these new rates ! That is Common Sense !
As long as the bill is just increased, it will never decreased. I believe my idea would keep these funds separate from the cost of the water/sewage use and therefore make the county more accountable for their use of the funds.
Sure we need these improvements, just as every City in America does.
However these are the most dire of economic conditions for DeKalbs Citizens since the Great Depression of 1929 in America.
This major push is on right now so that Director Rhinehart will not have to lay off so many of his staff.
Evidently we are to believe that what has been put off for decades can not go another year or two until this economy improves and the Citizens of DeKalb are in better financial conditions.
Not now Ted Rhinehart !!!