Mayor Andre Dickens this week called the massive water break that bedeviled Atlanta a “wake-up call” and “call to action.”
He could have added a “cold, wet smack in the face.”
Now, Dickens, despite his initial tepid response, did not create this crisis. The mayor inherited the 100-year-old pipes. Just like former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms inherited 95-year-old pipes and Kasim Reed had 90-year-old pipes and Shirley Franklin before them had 80-year-old pipes.
I could keep tracing back to the 1930s to the first term of Mayor William B. Hartsfield. He had a newish water system, as well as an airport with bi-planes.
Again, Dickens didn’t create the problem. He’s just the mayor who got stuck with it when it went kablooey, and now he’s left with the thankless chore of fixing it.
I say thankless because providing water is the most basic duty of local government. Water delivery is a given, like the air we breathe. The system is underground — unseen and out of mind. That is, until brown water trickles out of the faucet.
Spending millions and even billions of dollars on something largely invisible is not sexy. Politicians would rather accomplish projects that people can experience, gawk at or even walk on. Like the Beltline or a new community center.
It’s like being a homeowner. You’d much rather spend a load of money on a gleaming new kitchen than foundational repairs. But without the latter, you’ve got nothing.
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
“It’s not my fault, but it is my problem,” Dickens said, vowing to create a “blue ribbon panel” to study the matter and forge a plan. The panel will include The Army Corp of Engineers and business execs and Franklin, who dubbed herself the “Sewer Mayor,” for pushing through the billion dollar-plus plan to rebuild Atlanta’s ancient system.
She did it, albeit, at gunpoint, as the feds threatened the city with sanctions because untreated sewage routinely flowed into the Chattahoochee River. But, to her credit, she did it.
Blue ribbon panels are a great thing. That is, when their findings are acted upon. But my sense is there are shelves at City Hall bending under the weight of unheeded reports.
Crumbling infrastructure, especially decrepit sewer and water lines, is by no means just an Atlanta thing. The city’s next-door neighbor, DeKalb County, has dealt with many of the same issues in recent years.
I called DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond to tell him Atlanta was making his county look good for a change.
He told me his wife last week saw Dickens on the TV news and said, “That could have been you.”
“I said, ‘Baby, that was me.’ And it still could be me.”
DeKalb, like Atlanta, has undergone a billion dollar-plus federally mandated rebuild of sagging sewers. On Tuesday, Thurmond announced he would be seeking a water and sewer increase of an undisclosed amount.
That is on top of rolling rate increases from 2022-2029 built in for a bond issue to fund capital improvements to the system. Those increases, 6% for the first four years and 4.5% for the next four, could add up to a 50% increase by 2030. Not only do sewer and water lines need upgrading, so does DeKalb’s water treatment plant.
Thurmond would have preferred focusing on other projects. “I wanted to build a civic center, all bright and shiny,” he said. It might have even carried his name.
“Installing 5,000 linear feet (of water lines) doesn’t make the news; but if it breaks, it does,” he said. “You just have to accept that. You just have to do it. No one’s going to feel sorry for you.”
He noted that Scott Candler, the DeKalb leader who built the system in the 1940s, later got voted out of office.
It’s not like Atlanta hasn’t tried to rectify things. It’s just that there’s been lots of rectifying to do.
Atlanta voters have paid a one-cent sales tax since 2004 to fund water and sewer projects and last month approved an extension. The city says the tax “has staved off a 25% increase” in rates that are already among the highest in the country.
But that obviously has not been enough.
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
A 2017 audit found that the city has been so focused on rebuilding the sewer system — to the tune of almost $2 billion since 2003 — that it only spent $350 million during that time on water infrastructure. (Audits have been unkind to Atlanta Watershed through the years. A 2014 audit discovered that missing or stolen items included 10,000 water meters, lots of copper pipes and an $80,000 backhoe.)
And the city’s lopsided spending seems to continue. A gander at the watershed’s 23 capital improvement projects for fiscal 2023 and 2024 found just a handful that were water-delivery related.
Dickens noted the city will ask the feds for grants to help rebuild the system. They would seek a “billion, with a B,” he said. However, the city has received no such funding in recent years with a friendly administration in the White House.
And if the other fellow wins this year, the city’s ask will be even more problematic.
I asked Dickens’ office if he would seek a water increase. It seems there’d be no way to renew the system, other than the Federal Grant Fairy coming through.
They said Dickens has assembled “an incredible team” and plans no rate increases.
Any way, it’ll be a slow, expensive and even a generational process to get this all fixed. Maybe someday Dickens’ grandkid will reap the benefits.
About the Author
