A major break in Atlanta’s water main is now repaired, but a boil water advisory is still in effect for many, city says | News

(CNN) — Crews in Atlanta completed repairs Wednesday morning to a water main whose break, among other things, contributed to much of the city going days without drinking water — although an advisory boil water remains in effect for many homes and businesses “due to an abundance.” caution,” the city said.

Water service is “slowly being brought back online to allow system pressures to recover,” officials said in a news release, following a large and prolonged outage that highlighted deteriorating water supplies. infrastructures that crisscross a large center of the South and many other large American cities.

A boil water advisory remains in effect Wednesday for a portion of Atlanta, from downtown to Midtown and several east Atlanta neighborhoods, after crews completed pipe repairs broken water main at 11th and West Peachtree streets in Midtown, restoring water to nearby customers. The state Division of Environmental Protection will notify the city when the advisory can be lifted, the city’s news release said.

“We are pleased to announce that water service has been fully restored throughout our city. Our dedicated teams worked tirelessly to resolve the issue, and I commend them for their service,” Mayor Andre Dickens, who has been criticized for his response to the crisis, said in the press release.

“We appreciate the patience and cooperation of our residents and businesses during this difficult time,” said the mayor, who declared a state of emergency Saturday due to the tap water situation. “Together, we demonstrated the resilience that defines our city. »

“Our infrastructure is collapsing”

The city’s water supply woes began Friday, when the first two in a series of water main breaks appeared along two roughly century-old pipes – one 36 inches , the other 48 inches, said Dickens. One of the failed pipes was installed in 1910, while another dated from 1930, he said.

Dickens declared a state of emergency as a series of shutdowns left parts of the city without water or with boil advisories and caused significant disruptions to the city’s medical and educational facilities.

Emory University Hospital in Midtown began diverting ambulances from its emergency department and transferring dialysis patients to other hospitals — although normal operations resumed Sunday. Atlanta Public Schools also canceled many of its summer programs Monday and Tuesday, saying they would resume once water service was restored.

Repairs to a breach near downtown were completed Saturday, allowing the city to lift a much broader boil water advisory that had been in effect in the area since Friday.

“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.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arrived in the city Tuesday to help “develop a plan to assess our aging infrastructure,” Dickens said. But while improving the city’s infrastructure will help speed up repairs, Burks noted, it won’t prevent future breaks.

Atlanta’s woes are part of a larger problem of aging infrastructure in Canada and the United States, where more than 30% of water mains are more than 50 years old, according to a December 2023 study by the ‘Utah State University. Faulty water pipes are on average 53 years old, the study notes.

In the United States and Canada, about 260,000 water main breaks occur each year, costing about $2.6 billion each year, according to the study.

The-CNN-Wire

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