COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY
Sign in due time
Teacher shortage continues
Thirteen years after a change in name and ownership, the Gallery at South DeKalb has a sign with its correct name again. 2
The start of the new school year is only four weeks away, and DeKalb School District still needs 250 teachers. 3
DeKalb Don’t Need Mo’ Mess! Let's Put Litter in Its Place
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER
Copyright © 2016 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
July 9, 2016
Volume 22, Number 11
www.crossroadsnews.com
Senior apartments to rise near Indian Creek MARTA station By Ken Watts
Rents will be $750 and $900 for one and two bedrooms respectively. Amenities at the Manor at Indian Creek will include a furnished interior gathering area, community meeting room, on-site laundry, computer center, fitness center, gazebo picnic area, and space for community gardens. The Board of Commissioners approved Prestwick’s rezoning application on Sept. 23, 2014. One of the conditions was that the height of the buildings not exceed four stories. Edrick Harris, Prestwick’s vice president,
A crew prepares a three-acre site on Durham Park Road on July 6 for construction of a $30 million senior living community near the Indian Creek MARTA station in Stone Mountain.
The Manor at Indian Creek, a new $30 million senior apartment community, will soon rise in Stone Mountain across from the Indian Creek MARTA station. Workers were clearing three wooded acres at the site this week for Phase I of the 188-unit apartment community for people 55 years and older. The first set of 94 one- and two-bedroom apartments, being built on six acres at 3904 Durham Park Road, is slated to open July 2017. Atlanta-based developer Prestwick Cos. hopes to complete the remaining units by summer 2018. Please see SENIORS, page 4
Ken Watts / CrossRoadsNews
DeKalb water losses costing over $2 million a year Aging system loses billions of gallons annually
DeKalb Watershed Management repairs a rupture main in Tucker on July 23, 2015.
By Donna Williams Lewis
DeKalb County’s water system is losing billions of gallons of water a year and costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Montreal-based FluksAqua, which tracks water loss internationally, says DeKalb loses enough water in one year to fill 7,056 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The loss cost the county more than $2.7 million or $14 per resident a year, according to FluksAqua’s June 2016 report. The report shows that DeKalb lost about 4.7 billion gallons of water, or about 20 percent of 23.7 billion gallons ready for public consumption, to leaks in its water system in 2013, the latest year of data available to the company. Hubert Colas, president of FluksAqua Americas, said an inefficient water supply drains the environment prematurely and increases the cost of service. FluksAqua’s report came as DeKalb County and metro Atlanta moved into severe drought status. “It’s so customary in our developed world to have water that is clean and plentiful,” Colas said. “Every time something happens, like a boil advisory or drought, that’s when you start realizing the importance of water.” FluksAqua connects water professionals around the world through an online forum and benchmark ratings and sells apps to enhance water and wastewater asset performance. Its report said Georgia’s aging water infrastructure is springing leaks at an alarming rate, causing the state to lose more than 50 billion gallons of water annually. In metro Atlanta, DeKalb’s water loss was slightly behind the city of Atlanta, which lost 21 percent of its treated water in 2013. Atlanta, like DeKalb, is in the midst of a massive water infrastructure improvement project.
Richard Sangster / wsbradio.com
Gwinnett County, which has newer infrastructure and supplied about the same amount of water as DeKalb in 2013, lost 7 percent, or 1.6 billion gallons, to leaks. Colas applauded Gwinnett’s water loss performance. “Gwinnett County numbers are extremely good,” he said. Chris Manganiello, communications coordinator of the Georgia Water Coalition, says water loss is a big problem nearly everywhere. “That does not make water loss any less important in DeKalb, but that it is not surprising if a system like DeKalb has significant loss and a whole lot of room for improvement,” he said in an email. DeKalb officials said the county has made progress since 2013 in stemming the tide of its water losses.
A 2015 DeKalb County water loss audit shows that water loss due to leaks is down 4 percent to about 16 percent, or 3.6 billion gallons of 22.2 billion gallons supplied. FluksAqua said the 2015 water loss would fill about 5,414 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Burke Brennan, DeKalb County spokesman, said the best water systems in the world have losses of about 10 percent. “So at 16.1 percent, DeKalb is doing pretty well for a water system of its size and age,” he said on July 6. DeKalb County is in the process of addressing its water and wastewater issues with a $1.35 billion infrastructure upgrade project born of a consent degree with state and federal environmental protection agencies to reduce sewage spills. Brennan said the infrastructure upgrades
will make improvements. “As these projects are completed, there will be a further reduction of water lost due to line breaks caused by age,” he said. FluksAqua’s water loss report uses data from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division Water System Audit. The company says Georgia is one of only six states in the United States with water leakage reporting requirements for all of its water utilities. “Georgia is in a unique position because it has a program that requires utilities to report water leakage, which means they can actually plan to address the system issues,” Colas said. The audits show that, statewide, Georgia loses enough water to fill nearly 78,000 Please see WATER, page 2