Atlanta boil water advisory: City remains under state of emergency despite ongoing water issues

CNN
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Atlanta remains under a state of emergency Monday as it battles disruptions to its water service that began last week, leaving part of a major city under a boil water notice and underscoring the omnipresence of problems caused by aging American infrastructure.

“We are currently working in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We asked for their help because they have the most experience handling a crisis like this,” Mayor Andre Dickens announced in a statement Monday. “They will help us develop a plan to assess our aging infrastructure.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will arrive Tuesday, city officials said.

“What we found, as we dug, dug, dug and looked at pipes, we’re repairing pipes from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and our infrastructure is falling apart,” said LaChandra Burks, director of the operation of Atlanta, during a city council meeting Monday afternoon.

City officials plan to partner with federal teams to evaluate how to improve the city’s infrastructure, she said, adding that while the improvements won’t prevent water main breaks, they will allow for faster repairs.

The city has been plagued by water problems since Friday, when the first two in a series of water main breaks appeared along two pipes – one 36 inches, the other 48 inches – which, according to Dickens, were about a century old. . One of the failing pipes was installed in 1910, while another dated to 1930, the mayor said.

Repairs were completed on a break near downtown Saturday evening, hours before Dickens declared a state of emergency. On Monday, the city’s watershed management department lifted a boil water advisory in effect since Friday in the area. City officials said public water is safe to use for all purposes.

Repairs on the other break, at 11th and West Peachtree streets in Midtown, are not yet complete and crews were working on them Monday. Around 1 a.m., crews began shutting off water to several blocks in the area, causing a geyser rising from the breach to dissipate, Dickens said during a news conference at the scene later in the day. His administration is “laser focused” on solving this problem, he said. A boil water advisory remained in effect Monday for that area, city officials said.

Officials were “pleased with the direction the repairs are going now,” said Al Wiggins Jr., director of the city’s Watershed Management Department. He would not provide a timetable for restoring service.

As of Monday morning, officials had no reason to believe the water main breaks were related, Wiggins said, although he noted crews had not yet been able to do a thorough inspection in Midtown.

Dickens said there were “a few minor breaks” on Sunday, two of which he visited: one at 1190 Atlantic Ave., near the Atlantic Station shopping district, and the other in the Candler neighborhood City park. The Department of Watershed Management said repairs were completed as of Sunday afternoon, restoring water to 35 homes.

Firefighters and police who also spoke at Monday’s news conference said their departments were distributing water to areas where water had been cut off and stressed that first responders were not had not been affected.

Collectively, the outages and ongoing repairs have left parts of the city without water or under boil water notices, forcing businesses and tourist attractions, including the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola, to close. Events, including two Megan Thee Stallion concerts scheduled for Friday and Saturday at State Farm Arena, have been postponed.

The disruptions prompted Emory University Hospital in Midtown to transfer dialysis patients to other hospitals and divert ambulances from its emergency department — although it resumed normal operations Sunday, a spokesperson said .

Atlanta Public Schools’ summer school and programs were not held Monday, and programs “will resume once boil water advisories are lifted,” a district notice says school. Non-essential employees have been asked to work remotely.

On Monday, the mayor announced there would be a financial aid program to help “small businesses affected by the recent water crisis.” The program will provide funds to businesses that have suffered losses due to water issues, Dickens said, urging residents to “stay tuned for more details on how to apply.”

Meanwhile, the city has designated six fire stations where affected residents can fetch water, according to the Department of Watershed Management.

“I know this has been a difficult and frustrating day for many of you,” Dickens said Saturday in declaring a state of emergency, which allows the city to expedite access to resources for repairs. “We all take this issue very seriously.”

Atlanta’s problems in recent days are indicative of a broader problem with crumbling infrastructure across the country. In the United States and Canada, approximately 260,000 water main breaks cost $2.6 billion each year, according to a December 2023 study by Utah State University.

The study found that the average age of failed water pipes is about 53 years, and 33 percent of water pipes in the United States and Canada are over 50 years old.

Dickens and the city faced criticism in the wake of the water main breaks, in part because of the pace of the response.

The mayor – who is up for re-election next year – said at a press conference over the weekend that he was in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday.

He was in contact with members of his administration “every hour,” he said, before his return Saturday. “I was gone less than 24 hours and then I came back,” he said.

Dickens said he would address the criticism “head on,” telling CNN’s Kate Bolduan that he was committed to providing updates every two hours to keep residents informed throughout the weekend.

“I take it seriously, I take it to heart,” Dickens said of the criticism. “Residents wanted to see more of me on Saturday morning before the 2 p.m. press conference. I understand this and I apologize for it.

According to a statement from a city spokesperson, when Dickens left Atlanta, officials had not yet realized the severity of the ruptures.

Dickens did not answer questions during Monday’s news conference, which officials abruptly ended after a resident who appeared upset repeatedly asked Wiggins about the status of the repairs and when the water would would be restored.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

CNN’s Ryan Young contributed to this report.