The city of Durham is growing too fast for its sewer system, putting hundreds of new homes planned for southeast Durham on hold.
Local developers, many of them small builders, are frustrated after the city revealed that a key sewer line is maxed out, effectively freezing nearly 700 future housing units for the next five years.
For years, the city determined the capacity of sewer lines using limited flow gauges and general system knowledge. However, a new $30 million computer model, the first of its kind for a major utility in the state, recently showed that Durham’s Goose Creek basin is at its limit and can’t be connected to any new sewer lines…