Last night, East Brainerd, East Ridge and other neighborhoods in Chattanooga weren’t just wet — they were under water. Streets turned into rivers, intersections closed and homeowners watched floodwater inch toward their doors.
And let’s be honest: this wasn’t just “a heavy rain.” It was the predictable outcome of decades of neglecting infrastructure while fast-tracking every condo, coffee shop, vape store and tire shop that a developer could squeeze onto a lot.
Chattanooga still relies on an outdated combined sewer system in many areas — stormwater and sewage sharing the same overburdened pipes.
One good downpour and the system fails, flooding our streets and dumping raw sewage into our waterways.
Meanwhile, millions of taxpayer dollars are poured into the riverfront to impress tourists and investors. We can fast-track funding for a gazillion-dollar stadium. We can green-light sweetheart deals for developer buddies. But fixing our drainage? Repairing our crumbling roads? Giving overdue pay raises to the first responders who work through these disasters? We’re told there’s “just no money.”
Yes, the city is in the middle of a long-term wastewater upgrade, but it’s moving at a crawl while development moves at a sprint. Every time a new housing project or commercial build goes up without a single stormwater capacity improvement, we’re setting ourselves up for another night like this.
This is a matter of priorities — and right now, they’re upside down. Chattanooga needs to invest in separating sewer from stormwater, expanding drainage capacity and clearing the clogged ditches and pipes that have been neglected for years.
Because the truth is simple: the riverfront can wait. Our homes can’t. And until our city leaders understand that, we’ll keep funding photo-ops for tourists while the people who actually live here wade through another preventable mess.
Brandi Murray