DeKalb County to Replace 102,000 Water Meters

DECATUR, GA -- In a bid to fix a water billing crisis that has lingered for months, DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond announced Thursday that the county will replace more than 100,000 water meters. The plan comes from a CEO-led task force, which advised Thurmond that 55 percent of the county's 184,000 small meters -- 102,000 -- are at risk of failing due to age or factory defects.

Inaccurate water bills, with some of them showing impossible usage amounts, have become a thorn for frustrated DeKalb residents in recent years. Former CEO Burrell Ellis and interim CEO Lee May both contended with the water billing crisis before they left office. SIGN UP: To get notified of more local news like this, click here to sign up for the Decatur Patch. Or find your Atlanta-area town here. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.

Thurmond plans to replace 62,000 small meters that are over 15 years old and 40,000 that were made before 2014. Those have been identified by DeKalb as being susceptible to factory defects.

“Implementing a large-scale meter replacement program will take time, but is a substantial step to restore faith in the accuracy of meter readings and water bills,” Thurmond said in a news release.

The county will also roll out a new meter maintenance plan that services 7 percent of them around the county per year based on the devices' age, the county said.

“This will ensure that we never have deficient, out-of- life-cycle water meters again,” Thurmond said.

The meter replacements will begin in the fourth quarter of 2017, he said, while defective meters will be switched out on an ongoing basis.

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