DeKalb County Gets Extension To Fix Sewers, Must Pay $1M Fine

DEKALB COUNTY, GA — DeKalb County officials will have more time to make necessary repairs to its sewer system under a modified agreement that was approved by a judge last week but will have to pay more than a $1 million fine as part of the deal.

The modified agreement gives the county until 2027 to complete the repairs that are part of a long-term $438 million project that addresses large-scale repairs. The agreement was approved by U.S. District Court Steven D. Grimberg, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

In addition to a $1.05 million fine, DeKalb County officials had to agree to stricter reporting guidelines and bigger penalties when spills occur, the AJC reported. The judge’s decision came a month after federal and state prosecutors recommended the updated agreement.

The modified deal gives the county until December 2027 to make the fixes to the sewer system, which has proven problematic especially when it comes to overflows and spills. Several of the incidents happened over the summer when 28.5 million gallons of sewage seeped out into the streets of Lithonia, the newspaper reported.

The county reached an agreement with state and federal representatives in 2011 to clean up the county sewers. However, state and federal prosecutors allege there have still been a number of spills that could potentially contaminate waterways outside of the county.

In making his decision during a hearing last week, Grimberg said the new agreement that buys the county the additional time is “fair, reasonable “and “in the public interest” to OK the extension, the AJC reported last week.

DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond praised the judge’s decision after the county failed to make the progress it had hoped to in addressing the repairs. The previous deal expired in 2020 and officials have been negotiating the updated plan for more than a year.

More than 100 fixes will need to be made over the next four years and half of those repairs will need to be completed within the next two years, the AJC reported. The deal also stipulates that if any major problems become evident over the next 12 months, those repairs will also be required to added to the to-do list.