200,000-plus gallons of sewer spills so far this month
- 1/20/11
- Categorized in: DeKalb News
Last week while most DeKalb residents were stuck at home because of the winter storm, county workers were called out to deal with a 20,000-gallon sewer spill.
The spill, which occurred Jan. 11 on North Hairston Road in the Mountain Crest apartment complex, was caused by grease blocking an eight-inch line which then forced a manhole cover to overflow. The spill entered Snapfinger Creek, according to county records.
Four days earlier on Jan. 7, nearly 165,000 gallons of sewage entered Camp Creek from a spill on Lawrenceville Highway in Tucker. Again, the cause was grease blocking a pipe causing a manhole to overflow. It took county workers nearly 48 hours to contain the spill.
Other spills include:
• A 38,220-gallon spill on Jan. 13. The spill, on the 1500 block of Biltmore Dr., entered Peachtree Creek and was caused by grease.
• A 1,200-gallon spill on Briarbridge Circle in Tucker on Jan. 9, caused by grease and roots.
• A Jan. 7 spill on Ripplewater Drive in Atlanta. This 5,125-gallon spill was caused by a piece of broken pipe obstructing the sewage from flowing. Workers had to pump sewage from one manhole to another one to stop the spill from entering the Entrenchment Creek tributary.
• A 1,240-gallon spill that entered Nancy Creek on Jan.7. The spill occurred on Binghamton Drive in Dunwoody and was caused by roots.
So far this month, more than 239,220 gallons of sewage have spilled into area creeks.
Last month, DeKalb County agreed to pay a $453,000 penalty from the federal Environmental Protection Agency after having nearly 850 sewage spills from 2006-10. The county also consented to implement a $600,000 stream cleanup project.
Additionally, the county’s Board of Commissioners approved $1.345 billion in improvements to DeKalb’s water and sewer system, which will be financed by an 11-percent rate hike each year from 2012-14.
This is a major health issue as well...
Curious that one spill occurred behind Kroger and Walmart in Tucker. Is someone overseeing where they dump their grease from all that chicken they fry?
accumulate and harden in the main sewer lines, and cause a sewer backup. If
the DeKalb Watershed Management Dept. did a sufficient job of educating all residents, these overflows would decrease significantly. The DeKalb Soil & Water Conservation District (a State Agency) has recommended putting educational material in residents water & sewer bills. Door hangers could be placed in apartment buildings.
As for the "stock" photograph which accompanies this article.....I am the photographer of this particular photograph. I took this photo while inspecting a land development called Mortons Landing on River Road. I promptly called the County's 24 hour spill hotline (770-270-6243) and was present when the dispatched crew cleared the line. I filed a report with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, along with other photo's which show untreated sewage from the manhole entering a nearby creek. The County, not aware that
a full report was in the hands of the GAEPD, falsely stated that sewage didn't flow into
the creek. Such false reporting has damaged the DeKalb WM Depts. credibility with some residents. I hope Dr. Frances Kungu, Director of WM (who was hired after the above referenced site report) will continue to strive to bring integrity to his department, and make cleaning up our neighborhood streams and rivers job 1!
Doug Denton, Supervisor
DeKalb Soil & Water Conservation District
However is there away the county can get a handle on this by making sure the restaurants are properly disposing their grease and not pouring it down the sink by having them keep a record of their grease disposal pickup as a part of their inspection after all it it is costing the county an awful lot of taxpayers money in fines along with the health hazard this is causing from the sewer spillage.