BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — Wednesday afternoon, a water main break in Brookhaven sent water nearly 100ft into the air for hours.
“I was on the way home yesterday, and I saw a river flowing down the road,” Mote Andrews said.
“It was as high as any tree in the neighborhood, and no one knew what to do,” Draper Craig, another neighbor, said.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Workers from Dekalb were able to contain the break, and only 50-100 people were impacted. As of Thursday, no one was without water.
“It would be nice if this wasn’t a fairly normal occurrence,” Andrews said.
RELATED STORIES:
- DeKalb County water crews fix the latest of several water main breaks in the last month
- Crews still repairing road weeks after major water main break in DeKalb County
- DeKalb County closing lanes of North Druid Hills Road for water main work
- Business owners concerned after water main break shuts down part of busy Clairmont Road
- Crews still repairing road weeks after major water main break in DeKalb County
- DeKalb Co. residents could soon pay more for water service
“To see the DeKalb County watershed out here regularly is no shock,” Craig said
“at this point, I’m not surprised,” Neighbor Daniel Torrez said.
Neighbors say over the past 4 years, they have had at least four water main breaks.
Dekalb County has the area as part of scheduled replacements as the county spends billions on replacing the water system.
(https://www.dekalbcountyga.gov/watershed-management/drew-valley-water-main-replacement-project)
“I am prepared to make the tough decisions necessary to protect our residents, create economic opportunities, and ensure we leave a legacy of strong infrastructure for the next generation,” Dekalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said in an emailed statement.
In January a water main break of a 1941 pipe put around 20,000 people under a boil water advisory. The county says that DeKalb’s water system is at risk of catastrophic failures, with over 40 percent of the system aging beyond 70 years by 2030. That age, the county says, puts residents and businesses face increased outages, contamination risks, and emergency repair costs.
“We cannot afford to kick the can down the road any longer. This is our moment to secure a better future for DeKalb County,” Cochran-Johnson said in a statement.
Dekalb is not the only county experiencing challenges with the age of its water infrastructure. In February, WSBTV reported that Atlanta is working on their plan to replace 3000 miles worth of pipes.. some of which are more than 100 years old.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
