City of Decatur announces no sewer overflows in new report

DECATUR, Ala. (WAFF) - Decatur city officials have announced they haven’t had a sanitary sewer overflow due to rain in more than two years.

The Decatur Utilities Board of Directors approved a resolution on Thursday that accepted Decatur Utilities’ annual Municipal Water Pollution Prevention Program. The report stated the city hasn’t had an overflow since March 2022.

The MWPP is an initiative by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to protect wastewater treatment plants.

In the most recent report, Decatur Utilities received just 10 points. That’s compared to 113 in 2022 after 13 overflows happened. The only reason the city received any points was due to the age of the wastewater treatment plant. A city receives more points if issues are found in the city.

Decatur Utilities General Manager Ray Hardin said the nearly perfect report shows the city’s efforts to rehabilitate the sewer system are working. In 2021, the city started its 10-year plan to fix the city’s wastewater treatment system.

Since the plan began, more than 300,000 linear feet of sewer mains have been replaced.

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