Dozens in DeKalb County say they’ve been without water since Christmas

UPDATE: The DeKalb County Department of Watershed Management says water was restored to the area Sunday morning.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Dozens of neighbors in Decatur say they have been without water for days after a water main burst on Christmas Day.

The DeKalb County Department of Watershed Management crews are working to repair the 16-inch water main break at Longleaf Drive and Peachcrest Road.

Channel 2′s Lauren Davis visited the site and spoke with neighbors.

Many are upset they don’t know when they will have normal water again.

“Walking down here just to get water to flush my commode. We can’t just let the commode sit there when we gotta use the bathroom,” said neighbor James Mosley.

“It don’t take this long to fix no water main break and they don’t tell us nothing,” he said.

Davis reached out to the county for updates on when the water issues are expected to be fixed.

“We know where it’s broken and how to fix it. The challenge has been to remove pressure from the pipe,” said DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond.

Thurmond said the problem is it’s an older pipe constructed in 1950, so it’s an older system without the proper valves.

Thurmond and the county told Davis they are working to restore water by Sunday morning. They also have fresh water on hand for anyone who needs it.

“I want to apologize to our customers who have been negatively impacted,” he said.

The county said customers near the intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Columbia Drive may experience some service interruptions including low water pressure and temporary water outages.

Officials said if customers experience brown water, they should run their faucets until the water is clear.

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