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DECATUR, Ala. – Wednesday morning Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling held a press conference to address the volume of sewer water that overflowed from manholes in the city in February.

According to e-files on the Alabama Department of Environmental Management website, Decatur Utilities reported that more than 20 million gallons of wastewater spilled from manholes from February 6th through the 15th.

At the press conference, Bowling seemed to distance himself from the ongoing problem. He told reporters he has been waiting for details about corrective action plans to be taken. He also says 20 million gallons of overflows in one month is unacceptable.

“We need to be unburdened from this unnecessary worry. If we do not receive the information and action we need for our community our city council should consider a change beginning with the response from the longest-serving board member, which would be board Chair, Neil Holland Junior, along with the rest of the guiding leadership,” said Mayor Tab Bowling.

This press conference has sparked a back-and-forth between the mayor and Decatur Utilities. DU’s general manager, Ray Hardin, released a statement saying the mayor’s description of their communication was “misleading and unprofessional”.

“It is unfortunate that Mayor Bowling has elected to communicate in such an unprofessional and misleading manner,” Hardin’s statement said.

The statement also says the mayor and Decatur Utilities leadership had a meeting as recently as January 14th.

“The exact issues Mayor Bowling questions in his post were addressed with him at that meeting and then again on January 14, 2020,” said Hardin continued ” This issue should not be leveraged for political capital by the Mayor or anyone else on the City Council. DU has acknowledged the issue and residents of Decatur should know we will take the steps needed – and expend the funds necessary – to continue working toward reducing and eliminating future SSOs.”

According to the statement, Decatur Utilities and the city council have authorized spending more than $60 million dollars over the past 10 years to address this issue.

Regardless, heavy rains this month have caused wastewater to overflow from manholes throughout the City of Decatur. Last week, WHNT tallied the initial total that was reported by Decatur Utilities. It was 4 million gallons.

The latest figures are in and the amount is much higher than that. There have been 20 million gallons of sewer water overflows in the city just this month. Every time wastewater overflows from manholes in Decatur, Decatur Utilities has to report it to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

This month DU filed 109 different reports to ADEM detailing more than 50 distinct overflows that occurred throughout the city. From February 6th to February 15th, more than 20 million gallons of wastewater overflowed from manholes.

Decatur Utilities said in the report, it attributes the overflows to the nearly nine inches of rain that fell from the 4th to the 13th. DU says each overflow was marked with a flag – cleaned of debris and cleaned by the utilities’ personnel.

You might wonder where all that wastewater went. According to the reports, it was discharged into area waterways including:

Flint creek

Dry Branch Creek

Betty Rye Ranch

Black Branch

Tennessee River (Wheeler Lake)

WHNT found that nearly half the wastewater that has overflowed from the sewer came from one manhole in a residential neighborhood. That manhole is located 1100 block of 6th Avenue Southwest. More than 3 million gallons of wastewater spilled from the manhole from the 6th through the 8th.

Read the full report stating over 3M gallons discharged from February 6-8 here:

Then it overflowed again. Nearly 7 million gallons of wastewater overflowed from the 10th to the 15th. The wastewater that overflowed from this manhole as discharged into Dry Branch Creek.

Read the full report stating nearly 7M gallons discharged from February 10-15 here:

According to the reports filed to ADEM, DU is continuing rehabilitation efforts to prevent future sanitary sewer overflows.

The statement released by Decatur Utilities’ general manager Wednesday, explains that the company has been working on this for more than a decade.

WHNT asked a spokesperson for the utility if the recent overflows would change or expedite that process. They told us they are in the process of conducting an engineering study. They said the study will help the company identify areas that should be addressed in order to have the most impact. It should also provide data on what is contributing to the overflows at the manhole on 6th Ave. SW. Any decisions to change or expedite the rehabilitation process will be made after the study is complete.

WHNT has been following this issue closely. According to documents filed with ADEM, it appears 6 million gallons of sewer water overflowed from manholes in all of 2019.

A review of the utility’s reports to ADEM shows an estimated 675,000 gallons in sewer water spills in December 2019. Decatur Utilities reported similar problems from October to December 2018, though on a much smaller scale, about 80,000 gallons of wastewater spills.