Southwest Georgia faces looming infrastructure crisis

DAWSON – As southwest Georgia cities try to solve the mystery on how to grow in industry and population, a looming problem swells beneath their feet. 

Critical infrastructure – water, sewer and storm drainage – is near or exceeding its lifespan, and for most small towns, the cost to repair these systems is too great for a shrinking tax base. Too often the problems are kept beneath the surface, not addressed until it’s too late. 

“It’s a problem nationwide,” Jay Matthews with Georgia Rural Water Association said. “We’re talking 50-, 60-, 70-year-old infrastructure in place that’s well beyond its useful life, and it’s past time to do major repairs or replacements. Small towns get the brunt of it because of a lack of resources, a lack of funding. It’s hard to identify the problems until it’s a problem.” 

Matthews said climate change exacerbates these problems. Flooding places more excessive wear and tear on systems, and fallen trees risk damaging lines.

These challenges are coming to a head in communities like Dawson, where the City Council recently struggled to vote on the approval of a project that would update a stretch of water line in a residential area. Council members worried the cost – about $215,000 – was too great to spend in one area, when consistent leaks and failures pop up across the entire city. 

City Public Works Director Michael Sinquefield said Dawson, which has a population of about 4,180, operates on an outdated water system with steel pipes that are rusted and too small to handle current usage. Burst pipes and leaks spring up through the city’s streets on a weekly basis. 

Recently, nearly 10 southwest Georgia communities were awarded $1 million grants to update long-overdue infrastructure problems. This included Dawson’s neighboring town, Parrott, which will use the grant for citywide water improvements that will directly impact Parrott’s entire population of about 150. The grant was funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered through the Department of Community Affairs.

Meanwhile Thomasville lost a near $20 million grant after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency terminated, under President Trump’s administration, almost 800 environmental justice grants in May. Thomasville planned to use this grant for a number of crucial community projects, including putting $9 million toward the replacement of aged infrastructure at its wastewater collection system. 

“While the administration’s decision brings a setback,” a release from the Thomasville Community Development Corporation read, “our commitment to our community is unshaken. We are actively engaging with the city government, state and federal policymakers to advocate for the restoration of this funding. In the belief that this funding was unlawfully terminated and thus will ultimately be restored, we are continuing the background work to prepare for the critical community resilience and home improvement programs to be funded by this EPA grant.”

Matthews said large-scale overhauls of these infrastructure systems can cost communities in excess of $50 million, depending on their size. This results in rural cities relying on grant funding for major repairs or replacements. 

He said the solution to aging water and sewer systems across the state — especially in small towns — starts with long-term planning and rate reform.

“Having a good, robust asset management plan is critical to have some expectations on what to expect before the problems happen,” Matthews said. “You do life-cycle calls to analyze your system and know your assets, the useful life of them. You have to be more proactive and identify the needs before it becomes critical.”

Asset management plans are already required for systems serving populations of more than 3,300, but Matthews said he believes even the smallest towns need them.

The Georgia Rural Water Association serves as a mutual aid partner to help towns identify problems and come up with temporary solutions as well as certification and training throughout the year.

Emergencies are common in small towns, where failing pumps, delayed parts, and thin staffing create a cascade of problems. 

If cities are unable to receive grants, they may be forced to exponentially raise tax rates in their communities to fund emergency projects, especially if these rates haven’t gone up each year to account for inflation.

“It’s important to identify the true cost of what it is to operate your systems each month and establish reasonable but real rates to run your system,” Matthews said. “Some communities wait years – they don’t want to address it. It’s a tough decision to go up on somebody’s water rates.

This happened in Edison, when city leaders raised the community’s millage rate from 18 to 29 mills, along with increased utility rates and fees. These rates came as the city tried to recover from a $500,000 financial crisis. Amid this crisis, essential infrastructure that was outdated began breaking or failing. 

Edison Mayor Shirley Worthy said the city faced continuous water leaks along its main water line, leading to the need for replacement lines. On Manry Street, a residential area, the city had an eroding road that risked damage to the sewer, gas and water lines that ran beneath it. The road has been closed off for nearly a year as the city couldn’t afford to fix it. 

Worthy said construction on this street will finally begin in the next month as the city has finally made the funds to address the repair.

Edison is ineligible for state grants because it is late on submitting legally required state audits. Worthy said the city has funded smaller-scale repairs as the need has arisen.

“We’re just trying to put the fire out when it pops up,” she said. “We’ve been very cautious about our budget and our finances … and of course the old council raised the taxes.”

In Fort Gaines, Mayor Kenneth Sumpter said the city is trying to take a proactive approach – replacing systems before they fail. The city has obtained millions of dollars in grants to address repairs and replacements of its water and sanitary sewer systems. The city formed a 2018 Master Infrastructure Development Plan to address these needs. 

“Infrastructure improvement … it’s been pushed aside for so many years, decades,” Sumpter said. “So right now, it’s just a lot of work to bring everything up to par after all these years of no attention and neglect. Our sanitary wastewater treatment plant … had (its) last upgrade in the mid-1970s, so it is well beyond its life expectancy, and I’m thankful every day the system is still working.”

Using mostly grant funding and Georgia Emergency Finance Authority loans, Fort Gaines has been able to move its water main from underneath a state highway, allowing for more easily accessible repairs. It’s also made significant strides in replacing its sewer systems. It’ll break ground on the second phase of construction on its sewer treatment plant in 2026. 

Sumpter said the city is still trying to secure funding to address its water system as it is no longer eligible for the specific CDBG grant it was trying to obtain. The city is also working on improving its storm drainage systems as Sumpter said he’s concerned about more severe weather events.

Sumpter said because these infrastructure projects are mostly underground, they are out of sight and out of mind for most residents. 

He is calling attention to the disparities in funding and political focus between Georgia’s urban centers and its many rural communities.

“There’s a lot of attention going toward the major metropolitan areas,” Sumpter said. “And I would comment that much of Georgia is rural. Everything does not center around Atlanta.”

He acknowledged that in the last year or two more funds have been directed toward the rural  and smaller communities, but the challenge remains in whether small towns have the capability “to be able to secure those funds.”

Even when funding opportunities exist, match requirements often put them out of reach. 

“There’s the match for small communities having to come up with, what is it, almost $45,000 for a million dollars of support?” Sumpter said. “It’s kind of hefty for a small town to just have $45,000. It takes a few years to kind of raise those kinds of funds.”

Still, Sumpter said these infrastructure improvements are necessary if southwest Georgia ever wants to see growth. 

“This infrastructure development and bringing in broadband high speed internet, there’s an attempt to be attractive to industry, and the kind of industry that brings career building employment, and so we do our best to on our side, to make ourselves look good,” he said.