Atlanta Mayor Dickens: Water crisis ‘not my fault but it is my problem’

When a water main burst last week, it was hard to know immediately it would lead to a days-long crisis. After all, Mayor Andre Dickens noted, the city had dealt with more than 500 leaks or breaks over the past year.

“This has been decades in the making,” he said during the AJC’s “Politically Georgia” show Thursday, a day after he announced the water main breaks had been repaired and shortly after the city lifted a boil advisory.

Watch: Mayor Dickens updates the AJC on water main break

He again addressed the criticism he has received about being out of town early on and said he was in constant contact with watershed officials until he got back from an overnight trip to Memphis, where supporters held a fundraiser for him.

“I apologize to anyone who believes that going to Memphis or going out of the city any time is a problem,” Dickens said.

Credit: John Spink

Credit: John Spink

In recent days Dickens has called the mess a “wake-up call” to officials to be more proactive about monitoring the city’s aging water system that dates back to 1875. Now that the emergency has passed and boil water advisories lifted, Dickens said the city must address its outdated infrastructure.

“It’s not my fault but it is my problem,” he said. “We’re asking for help from all over the place.”

ExploreAtlanta water problems: Boil water advisory ends citywide

The ordeal has been disruptive to visitors who found their downtown hotels without running water for a time, business owners who had to halt or shift operations and residents whose kids attend Atlanta Public Schools summer programming. Officials announced three straight days of cancelations before resuming normal operations Thursday.

Maria Goenaga learned at 7:45 p.m. Sunday that her sons’ summer camp would be canceled. Fortunately, she had also signed them up for a Boys & Girls Club camp.

”I’m lucky that I had that available, but I know there are many parents that don’t,” Goenaga said. “And a 7:45 p.m. phone call, it’s really inappropriate.”

APS will not issue refunds, saying the cancelations were “due to a public emergency beyond our control.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Steamhouse Lounge, a seafood restaurant on the corner of 11th and West Peachtree streets, was finally able to reopen Thursday afternoon for the first time in five days. Outside the restaurant, there was a faint odor of expired seafood. Owner Sam Weyman said garbage trucks hadn’t been able to get past the blockades to pick up the trash, so several days worth of seafood marinated in the dumpster.

The weekends are Steamhouse Lounge’s busiest days, general manager Danielle Jean-Baptiste said, but for days all they could do was “watch water flow out of a geyser.”

By 2 p.m. on Thursday, there were about a dozen customers filling most of the eatery’s downstairs tables. Steamhouse Lounge’s parking lot and valet were still closed, so they planned to use the hotel’s lot across the street.

“I’m hoping (customers) will come and make up for what happened,” said server Pierre Harrison, who estimated he lost $500 in tips and pay after missing three days of work. “They don’t realize how it affects us.”

Jean-Baptiste said the restaurant wants to compensate workers who missed their shifts, but details haven’t been worked out yet.

Across the street, Eleventh Street Pub still sat vacant, two of its windows boarded. The water that spouted for days near the restaurant caused flooding and broken windows.

— AJC staff writer Jillian Price and audio producer Natalie Mendenhall contributed to this report. Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.