DeKalb water main break: Repairs done, boil advisory lifted

DeKalb residents could be under boil water advisory until Saturday after massive main break. Video by John Spink/AJC

DeKalb County’s boil water advisory has been lifted.

The countywide advisory, first issued Wednesday morning following a massive water main break near Buford Highway, was rescinded shortly before 5 p.m. Friday. DeKalb officials said that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division had reviewed new microbiological test results and authorized the advisory be ended.

At a Friday afternoon press conference, DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond offered "an apology for the frustrationand invocenicne that some 700,000 citizens have had to endure over the last three days.”

DeKalb workers had completed repairs on the water main that crippled the community's water system around 8 a.m. Friday morning, some 24 hours ahead of schedule — thanks to hard work and a neighborly assist.

A total of about 50 county workers and contractors worked “around the clock” for more than 36 hours, officials said.  The Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority, meanwhile, provided DeKalb with three 20-foot sections of replacement pipe that it happened to have in inventory. It was picked up around noon Thursday.

CCMWA Director Glenn Page said such an arrangement was not unusual. Materials can often take days to obtain if they have to be ordered.

“Those of us in the water industry, we know each other and we all understand criticality of our operations,” Page said.