Residents, business owners hope for water infrastructure solution

ATLANTA — Early Saturday, another water main break occurred in Midtown.

It turned out to be a broken valve near the Mary Mac Tea Room, according to Atlanta Watershed.

This is the sixth potential break this week.

It’s one of several events this summer, all leading up to a meeting with the Atlanta City Council on Tuesday about prevention and repair.

Tahmarick Temple said he has lived in Atlanta for 22 years, his entire life. He has seen water main breaks get worse over the years.

“It was a big water outage at that time. And it forced our work to stop,” Temple said. “We couldn’t make any money for two days.”

Temple said aging water infrastructure needs to be addressed quickly.

“These systems are old and ancient,” Temple said. “They’ve had the same systems since the ’60s. It’s 2024. It’s time to modernize them. So if they would modernize them and put the money where it should be, we wouldn’t have these problems because these water breaks can cause a catastrophe.”

First, there was the late May disaster on Joseph E. Boone that closed the State Farm Arena, the Georgia Aquarium and many others. Then, break after break, 11th Street and Peachtree closed streets and businesses for days.

Jeremiah Terrence is co-owner of Triple Jays New York Style Pizza. Luckily, they escaped the impact of the crisis, but he’s heard countless stories from his neighbors who lost tens of thousands of dollars in business.

“That would be great,” Terrence said. “I don’t know how we could recover from that.”

Some businesses still haven’t bounced back. But before what seems like the next inevitable disruption occurs, Terremce hopes Atlanta city officials will be proactive.

“You have to anticipate the problem, prevent them from coming out and replace the items before they become a problem,” Terrence said.

Temple hopes a solution will come out of Tuesday’s meeting rather than another reason to wait.

“It’s because you’re waiting to see how far this can go that we’re in the predicament we’re in today,” Temple continued. “That’s what I want to hear on Tuesday. For them to say they’re going to fix this, now.”

The meeting will be held on July 9 at 11:30 a.m. in the Marvin S. Arrington, Sr. Council Chambers on Trinity Avenue.

Monday is also the deadline for eligible small businesses affected by the May 31 water main break to receive assistance from the city’s recovery fund.

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