DeKalb County lifted its warning for residents to boil water before drinking it Monday after lab test results found there were no water quality issues.
The boil water advisory and low water pressure prompted questions about the government’s response to a water line problem last week that inconvenienced thousands of people.
Some restaurants remained closed. A sold-out water slide event over the weekend was cancelled. All 722,000 people in DeKalb were advised not to drink from the tap unless they first boiled water for one minute.
Residents are asking how a brush mower’s collision with a fire hydrant Thursday afternoon could damage an entire water system. They also want the county to improve its communications with the public.
“It’s just frustrating,” said Pauline Dailey, a member of a citizen advisory group on water and sewer issues. “This affects every child, parent and person in the county. Why did it affect the entire county and not an isolated area that they could have fixed quickly? There are hard questions out there.”
The Decatur and Wade Walker branches of the YMCA were closed Monday because of low water pressure. Some homeowners and hotel guests couldn’t get water at all.
At the Square Pub in downtown Decatur, the restaurant went through 15 cases of bottled water while using paper plates to ensure sanitary conditions.
“It’s one of those things where it’s out of our control and we’re doing the best we can,” Bob Rhein, the owner of Square Pub, which was closed Monday.
DeKalb spokesman Burke Brennan said contractors and county workers tried to repair the 48-inch water transmission line break during Thursday and Friday night to minimize the daytime disruption caused by low water pressure.
But those efforts didn’t work, and the water line wasn’t repaired until early Sunday morning.
DeKalb has a system of old water pipes, and the county is in the process of $1.35 billion worth of water and sewer repairs.
“They haven’t been maintained over the years,” Brennan said. “We are addressing these areas of neglect.”
More than 100 water samples were collected from Friday through Sunday, and they tested negative for bacteria Monday, according to the county.
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