Atlanta Mayor Pledges to Help Businesses Hit by Water Outages as He Seeks to Improve System

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s mayor pledged Wednesday to support a plan to spend $5 million to reimburse businesses for losses suffered during water outages in the city since Friday, promising an assessment of the city’s infrastructure and the deployment of monitors to detect pipe leaks.

Mayor Andre Dickens made the announcements a day after workers completed repairs on a broken water main. Authorities said they restored normal water flow and pressure to customers after the trouble began Friday. Downtown Atlanta and nearby neighborhoods will remain under orders to boil water before drinking until sampling shows the water is safe, a period expected to last until on Thursday.

“We know this disruption has not been easy for you and we appreciate your patience and understanding throughout this journey we have been on,” Dickens said. “We’re happy to be on the other side.”

Atlanta’s water outages are the latest setbacks as cities across the country shore up their failing infrastructure. A 2022 crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, whose water system has long struggled, left many residents without running water for weeks. Other cities, including Flint, Michigan, have also struggled to provide their residents with clean drinking water.

The first-term Democratic mayor has been criticized for Atlanta’s response to the leaks, particularly because Dickens left the city after the first major leak to travel to Memphis, Tennessee, where he organized a fundraising drive. funds for his 2025 re-election campaign and met with city leaders. leaders to discuss crime and other issues. Dickens’ administration said it was unclear whether the first leak west of downtown would create a major disruption to the trip. A second major leak in the Midtown neighborhood began later Friday.

The first leak was repaired Saturday, but the second continued to gush onto city streets until Monday.

The city will begin installing devices at valves that can electronically detect and report leaks, said Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Al Wiggins Jr.. He said the pilot program was already planned ahead of time. the leaks. Wiggins also said the city will step up inspections and look to repair other valves that aren’t working properly.

Dickens said it would be part of a broader effort to examine the city’s water system, including help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a group he said would be led by former Mayor Shirley Franklin and Metro Atlanta Chamber CEO Katie Kirkpatrick. He said he would also consider revamping the city’s capital improvement plans to prioritize water system upgrades.

The mayor said he would seek more federal funding, but warned the work could be very expensive.

“I want us to be the example of solving all of this. And it will be a figure of the order of B – billion. It won’t be a small number,” Dickens said. “But I think it will give our residents more confidence.”

Atlanta voters supported the improvements. Last month, they approved maintaining a 1-cent sales tax to fund water and sewer improvements.

Atlanta once dumped untreated sewage into streams and the Chattahoochee River until a federal court ordered it to stop. It has since spent billions to upgrade its aging sewage and water systems, even going so far as to drill a tunnel through 8 kilometers of rock to store more than 30 days’ worth of water.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens listens as crews continue to work on a broken water main on West Peachtree Street in Midtown, with nearby residents warned of impacts to their water service as the crisis reaches its fourth day on Monday June 3, 2024. Water was gushing from the broken water main until Monday morning, when workers were seen pumping water. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

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