Brookhaven accelerates stormwater management projects
Brookhaven, GA, Aug. 4, 2021 –Brookhaven is making plans for stormwater upgrades throughout the City in 2022, based upon an increase in dedicated funding next year.
“We have tried to fix the broken stormwater system that we inherited from DeKalb County since cityhood, but the emergency repairs underscore that the underlying issues are worse than we previously thought,” said District 2 Councilmember John Park. “In order to effectively plan for stormwater management and prevent emergencies in the future, we have to make a more significant investment.”
A high percentage of the Stormwater management system in Brookhaven were built between 50 and 80 years ago, and many of those assets and structures are at or near the end of their useful life.
“We have a very high rate of failure of old corrugated metal pipe that are more than 20 years past the point of replacement,” said Public Works Director Don Sherrill. “We have more than 130,000 linear feet of corrugated pipe to replace in right of ways and through the private property of Brookhaven residents. That will be one of our top issues to address in 2022.”
The Brookhaven City Council approved a stormwater rate increase in June which is expected to generate an additional $1.2 million in dedicated funding for stormwater projects.
“The Public Works Department completed 347 work orders related to stormwater issues in 2020 alone, which underscores the ongoing public demand for proactive stormwater management,” said Sherrill.
“One of the reasons we became a City in the first place is to do a better job at maintaining our infrastructure than DeKalb County was doing. We will be able to solve a lot of our ongoing drainage issues as we adequately fund our stormwater system in 2022,” said Councilmember Park.
