Pointing to strong management and financial performance, Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded the city of Atlanta’s $232.14 million water and wastewater revenue refunding bonds, series 2017A, to Aa2 from Aa3, the city announced. In addition, the upgrade applies to about $3 billion in revenue bond outstanding debt.
The city said it has successfully complied with a 1998 federal consent decree by completing more than $700 million of rehabilitation and separation of its combined sewer system on time and under budget.
The city reports that it is also making headway on a 1999 federal consent decree to reduce sanitary sewer spills into the Chattahoochee River. Its accomplishments have allowed Atlanta to secure an extension on its federal consent decree obligation from 2014 to 2027.
Moody’s upgrade follows the January 2015 upgrade by Standard & Poor’s Investor Services and Fitch Ratings, which changed the rating of the water and wastewater revenue refunding bonds to AA- from A+. Fitch updated its outlook for the bonds from stable to positive.
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