DeKalb County will once again fail to meet a federal deadline to fix its sewer system, former CEO Michael Thurmond said in a report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Georgia Environmental Protection Division on his last day in office.
“The county simply needs more time and more money,” Thurmond said in the report on New Year’s Eve.
DeKalb County’s sewer system overflows so frequently, polluting waterways with harmful bacteria, that the county is in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. As a result, the county is under a consent decree — a legal agreement with the federal government to complete repairs and upgrades by Dec. 20, 2027, that were estimated to cost $1 billion. The current consent decree is one Thurmond renegotiated after the county blew a 2020 deadline…