DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — With this week’s constant rain and storms, DeKalb County says more than 2 million gallons of raw sewage has spilled in the county this week alone.
DeKalb Watershed has done a lot of work, but people who work for the agency will tell you they still have a long way to go.
County officials told Channel 2’s Dave Huddleston that they’ve done a lot of work around the county but they’re only 25% done.
Frank Jackson has lived on Melanie Court for 40 years. He told Huddleston that the sewage spills next to his house were awful.
"All you'd see was toilet paper all around the yard. The kids … nobody could go back there," Jackson said.
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So far in 2020, rainstorms have already saturated the ground and caused 15 massive sewage spills.
More than 2 million gallons have spilled into creeks and low-lying areas this week.
Now, crews are getting ready for more possible spills ahead of expected storms Thursday morning.
"We've already had three conversations for the day," said Maria Houser, director of the federal consent decree and environmental compliance. "We are actually deploying additional crews in key areas, such as dispatch, spill response, plant operations and maintenance.”
Huddleston watched Wednesday as crews removed manhole covers and used flow monitors to check water lines.
“This is how we tell how high the wastewater level is within the sewers," Houser said.
Workers also used drones to check pipes for cracks.
Houser told Huddleston the county has spent about $300 million to update the entire sewer system but that's only a third of the county's projects.
"We are right now rolling out the remainder of the system as we find things. We are putting them on a list and prioritizing them to be fixed," Houser said.
Jackson said he's noticed a difference.
"I haven't seen a sewage overflow since they've been working on it," Jackson said.
The county told Huddleston it has a 10-year plan to update the entire watershed infrastructure.
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