Water Infrastructure: Don't Let This Happen In Dunwoody

(Edited for clarity 6/1/2012)

From the Channel 46 website:

DEKALB COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -

The pipe that caused water to flow through a DeKalb County neighborhood was on a list of pipes that needed to be replaced because they were too old.

DeKalb County spokesman Burke Brennan said more than 50 percent of the county's water and sewer lines are more than 25 years old, and about a third are over 50 .   

"These are lines that we have identified as needing to be replaced and, throughout the street within the next year or two, we're going to be replacing the entire water line," he said. "Today it's just a patch, but this is an old line. It could happen again but we're eventually going to put in a new water line off of here."

Angelo Diaz lives in a house off of Rockbridge Drive that was the most severely affected by the flooding-turned-mud.

"Yesterday as it was getting dry, I was hoping it would just be water, but then when that level came down I noticed how much mud was around," Diaz said.

A restoration crew contracted by DeKalb County was assessing the damage on Thursday.

"They didn't say they were going cover things but they did say to make a list of everything that's coming out and put a value on it," Diaz said. "I'm hoping for the best, that they'll be 100 percent responsible for it."

Brennan said that anybody with a claim can contact the county's risk management department and file a claim.

"They'll take a look at and if we're at fault we will deal with it," Brennan said.
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I get that the city has to be a group of multitaskers that don't have the luxury of handling one issue or problem or plan at a time.  The article above refers to water and sewer lines specifically. Dunwoody is in similar dire straits with its stormwater system that was inherited from the same county that neglected the water lines that failed in the news story.  There is similar potential for a catastrophic failure in the stormwater system as well.  The infrastructure issues identified at the beginning of this administration have not gone away and still need to be addressed even as splashier headlines get attention.