South River Watershed Alliance

Historically, the two most significant sources of pollution and ecological threats to the South River are the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County. Although water quality has improved greatly in recent decades, the river continues to suffer extensively from Atlanta's combined sewer system and DeKalb's unregulated sewage spills. A 1997 federal consent decree limits the amount of combined sewage Atlanta can legally discharge into Entrenchment Creek via its Combined Sewer Overflow Facility, and a 2011 federal consent decree required that DeKalb County fix its sanitary sewage system by June 2020, a deadline DeKalb missed.

Below are timelines of City of Atlanta’s combined sewer overflow system and DeKalb County’s sanitary sewer spills.

Together we can improve the health of communities and protect our valuable freshwater resources.

Atlanta continues to operate combined sewers – a wastewater system that routinely mixes household sewage and stormwater in the same pipes. When it rains, this antiquated system dumps combined sewage into neighborhood creeks and streams, transforming them into open sewers. Today, the last tributary to the South River that is affected by Atlanta’s combined sewer system is Entrenchment Creek in southeast Atlanta.

Early 1880s: The South River became Atlanta’s first sanitary sewer when headwater streams near downtown Atlanta were piped to carry sewage away from wealthy neighborhoods.