DeKalb County would pay a more than $1 million penalty and risk paying increased fines under a proposed federal court settlement that would give the county another 7 1/2 years to satisfy a 2011 consent decree to reduce sewer spills, county officials said Monday.
Calling the proposed modification to the consent decree "a compromise we can all be proud of," DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond said "we are poised now to continue a decade of renewal in our county."
Deputy County Attorney Matthew Welch, the county's lead negotiator handling the decree, said the county will get a "7 1/2-year extension with completion of rehabilitation in the priority sewer areas." The county had already been given 8 1/2 to 9 years to do this work, he said.
"There will be increased oversight and enhanced reporting to EPA and EPD and the federal court," Welch said, referring to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. That would include a new requirement that regular reports be submitted directly to federal court.
He said the county would be required to pay a $1,047,000 civil penalty "based both on the number of spills that we have experienced in the county since the consent decree" and the county's failure to meet the decree's requirements.
Welch said there would be "increased stipulated penalties covering more areas moving forward." The county would also be required to address, in the next four years, a majority of 103 new sites where sewage spills have repeatedly occurred that will be added to the consent decree.
Maria Houser, the county's director of consent decree and environmental compliance, said the proposed agreement would include a "capacity assurance program" to deal with the problems of sewer capacity for new development.
Welch said the program "provides a new potential path to allow connections ... as work on the system is completed."
"It allows us to bank credits as work is completed," Welch said. "As we complete work we take a certain amount of that credit and we mete it out to the public. The remainder is held by the county and becomes a buffer."
"We have accomplished certain tasks," Houser said, including removal of 2,910 tons of debris removed via cleaning, inspection of 6,325 creek crossings, treatment of 435 miles of sewer pipes for root control and the clearing of 20 million square feet of easements.
She said the county has lined 133 miles of pipe, conducted spot repairs on 28 miles of pipe and increased the size of 35 miles of sewer pipe.
To county will obtain low-interest loans to help pay for $438 million in work, which will predominantly relate to the Snapfinger wastewater treatment facility and basin. One loan, from an EPA program, will provide $265 million. The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority will loan $100 million to DeKalb County.
Thurmond said the proposed agreement would allow the county to do a better job of providing sewer connections for new businesses. He said it would create an estimated 1,891 jobs in the county through 2026 "because of the capacity assurance program."
"Currently we have 379 pending applications for approval," Thurmond said. "This investment and our work will serve a population that is expected to grow to over 900,000 residents by 2050."
"It's a great day in DeKalb County," Thurmond said.
Even though the announcement was billed as a "virtual town hall meeting," members of the public were not allowed to comment or directly ask questions. Questions were read out without identifying who had asked them.
Thurmond and other officials answered questions selectively. They ignored a question asking how much DeKalb County has paid in fines and did not answer whether air-quality monitoring would begin to measure odors from sewer lines.
Hausser said work has been delayed because of a "tremendous amount of rain over the summer." The National Weather Service says Atlanta received 149 percent of its normal rainfall during the last 90 days.
The consent decree stems from a 2010 court case filed by federal and state environmental agencies over sewer spills that occurred between 2006 and 2010.
