ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – At the first meeting of the Atlanta City Council since a series of water main breaks interrupted water service to thousands of the city’s residents, the message was clear: new infrastructure is needed.
“We are repairing pipes from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s,” said Atlanta’s Chief Operating Officer LaChandra Burks. “Our infrastructure is crumbling, and we do know that and we take no arguments against that.”
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The breaks early Friday persisted through the weekend, prompting residents in parts of Midtown, Downtown and elsewhere around the city to boil anything coming out of their faucet. The city said the several locations that experienced issues were especially difficult sites to repair, as a number of lines converged where the breaks happened.
Watershed Commissioner Al Wiggins, who has only held that position for about three weeks, told council members that his crews had just received the part they needed to complete repairs and he hoped to have the affected lines pressurized later in the evening.
“The part has arrived. The part is being installed. We believe that this will be a routine repair,” said Wiggins. “We’re hopeful this part will be installed before nightfall and we’ll begin to pressurize the system.”
Wiggins cautioned Atlantans to wait for alerts from officials, as there’s a prototypical 18-hour waiting period in which the watershed department monitors the safety of water after a main break before a boil water advisory is lifted.
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Even though signs of a fix were imminent, residents speaking during the meeting’s public comment portion on Monday were clearly frustrated.
“This wasn’t a hurricane. This wasn’t a tornado. This was not an act of God. This was an act of negligence,” said Atlanta resident and local business owner Devin Barrington-Ward. “This was an act of irresponsibility. This was an act of not being prepared.”
“These outages come at a time of extreme disinvestment and neglect of public infrastructure,” said Atlanta resident Matthew Nursey, who also works with the Housing Justice League. “This is unacceptable. We’ve seen burning bridges, potholes swallowing cars, and now the city’s water access is knocked out of operation with abysmal communication and transparency.”
Mayor Andre Dickens took flack for spending Friday at a fundraiser out of state instead of more immediately and frequently addressing the main breaks. On Monday, the city acknowledged the lapse in communication.
“If there was one area we could’ve done a better job in, it’s communications,” said Burks. “What we all know is sometimes you get so engrained in an issue, and you’re working so hard on it that you don’t communicate out as you should. We have owned that, and the mayor has openly apologized for that.”
Burks said once residents began identifying issues of communication, the city began sending out and posting alerts every two hours.
Atlanta’s aging water infrastructure hasn’t been a secret. The city has been under a consent decree with the federal government — and even fined for violating it — since 1998. It was meant to ensure the city provided safe drinking water for residents experiencing persistently unsafe drinking water.
Newly in his role as commissioner, Wiggins couldn’t provide an update on how far along the watershed department was on completion of the federally mandated projects.
“Where we are percentage-wise of meeting those particular dates, I can’t tell you at this time,” he told council members.
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Councilmember Antonio Lewis, who chairs the city’s utilities committee, called for a special work session with Wiggins, watershed officials and other stakeholders next Tuesday to discuss possible solutions.
Lewis said even if the city were to replace its aging pipes, there’s a shortage of qualified workers who could prevent future breaks from happening, or at least shorten the time residents are without water.
“We had a job fair last year for watershed, 500 people had showed up, only 39 were eligible for positions,” said Lewis. “Until we’re able to increase the department staffing levels, entry-level, people that are on the ground, I don’t think it fully works. I think that we’re on the way.”
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