GPB's Amanda Andrews reports on changes Atlanta has in store for the city's water infrastructure.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens joined leaders from Department of Watershed Management at the Shirley Clarke Franklin Pumping Station and Reservoir Tuesday to announce a plan to upgrade the city’s entire drinking water system.
Addressing the century-old pipes became a priority for city leaders after several water main breaks last summer.
Dickens said the city is committing an estimated $2 billion to replace the hundreds of miles of pipes and other water assets in Atlanta over the next 20 years. The plan is called the Atlanta Drinking Water Renewal and Replacement Program.
“The long-term investment underscores our dedication to providing clean, reliable water for generations to come,” Dickens said.
Changes are already underway across the city’s drinking water infrastructure. Watershed Commissioner Al Wiggins Jr. said they’ve made significant improvements to plant operations across the city, with new technology that will ensure efficient maintenance.
“We've also deployed leak detection devices over 1,600 locations serving critical facilities such as hospitals, senior centers, and correctional institutions,” Wiggins said. “This has led to about 50 work orders for repairs, ensuring continuous, reliable services for these critical locations.”
The new technology is expected to save 168 million gallons of water a year across the city. Wiggins said Atlanta has also invested $7 million into improvements at RM Clayton, the city’s largest water treatment plant.
In February, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division fined the city of Atlanta nearly $300,000 for infractions at city water facilities. The EPD found that the RM Clayton water treatment plant had spilled wastewater into the Chattahoochee River 21 times
Wiggins said the city has implemented a corrective action plan at RM Clayton and it's investing in software upgrades at the facility.
“This will help us to detect early issues with the plant, will help to remove redundancies,” he said. “It will also help us to operate the plant in an autonomous way. Previously, portions of the plant had to be operated manually by staff.”
To organize the effort to improve and replace the city’s water infrastructure, Dickens created the Atlanta Water Advisory Group, which will be led by former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.
Atlanta Chief Strategy Officer Peter Aman said the group will guide the project through multiple mayors and city councils.
“They’re going to — and have been, in fact, giving us advice around how to organize the effort, how to accomplish the technical tasks of the topic, including pipe and valve assessment, prioritization, costing, execution, tracking, customer service, and so forth,” he said. “Importantly, they're also helping us think through how to engage the public.”
Funding for the Atlanta Drinking Water Renewal and Replacement Program will come from the federal government and existing money collected from ratepayers.
