DeKalb County To End Water Disconnection Moratorium After 5 Years

DEKALB COUNTY, GA — DeKalb County is set to end the county's 5-year-long moratorium on water disconnections later this summer as officials say the issues that led to unusually high water bills for residents have been largely fixed.

The moratorium traces back to 2016, when then-Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May placed the moratorium on disconnections for non-payment due to ongoing complaints about erroneous water bills, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Residents' water bills were, at times, exceeding $1,000 or more — in one case, a DeKalb woman got a bill for more than $19,000.

May issued the moratorium to prevent residents from having their water service disconnected while disputing these egregious bills. Billing was suspended completely for about 37,000 accounts at the height of the issues, and residents even formed a public Facebook group, called "Unbelievable DeKalb Water Bills," to discuss their high bills.

That same Facebook group now has roughly 4,600 members.

Part of the problem was that previously-installed water meters had a manufacturing defect that caused them to malfunction if they came into contact with moisture, per the AJC.

Those meters have been replaced, DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond said during Tuesday's commissioners meeting. The county has replaced about 70,000 meters, with roughly 30,000 more to go — and has decreased bill disputes from 4,000 disputed bills per month at the height of the problems, down to less than 200 a month, Thurmond said.

“Our long county nightmare is over,” Thurmond said Tuesday.

The moratorium is set to end July 1. County officials said they would launch a communication program to make sure residents know about the moratorium ending.