Atlanta Water Update | What’s Next After a Water Pipe Break

ATLANTA — Editor’s note: Video for this story is from a previous update with the Atlanta mayor.

The commissioner of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management provided an update Tuesday at the city’s Utilities Committee meeting following the water main breaks.

City Watershed Commissioner Al Wiggins spoke to the committee about efforts to resolve Atlanta’s water crisis, which began Friday, May 31.

At the meeting, Wiggins said repairs to the water main break at Joseph E. Boone and JP Brawley were completed June 1, and repairs to the water main break at 11th Street and W Peachtree Street NW had been completed by June 6.

In total, Wiggins said Atlanta Watershed crews responded to more than 85,000 emergency calls regarding water outages and disruptions across the city.

“At this point, we are not receiving any complaints about water pressure fluctuations or outages; we are working with an outside plumber to work with installations that were experiencing water pressure fluctuations, and that relationship has worked well.” , Wiggins said at the meeting Tuesday.

RELATED: Water pipes that broke in Atlanta were nearly 100 years old, city says

Wiggins said the Department of Watershed Management is reviewing a resolution introduced by the Atlanta City Council to help residents and businesses affected by the two major water main breaks.

11Alive previously spoke with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens about his appointment of the Blue Ribbon Commission, a group of experts with experience in water infrastructure who will help implement solutions. Dickens also previously discussed a $5 million grant to help business owners affected by water main breaks.

RELATED: “We will get through this together” | Atlanta Mayor Talks Next Steps and Plans to Solve the Water Crisis

Wiggins said DMW officials are also conducting a comprehensive review of customers impacted by water outages throughout the system.

“We have some ideas on how to compensate customers who have temporarily lost their water service,” Wiggins said at the meeting.

Wiggins added that he is also meeting with the leadership team from the mayor’s office to continue the discussion on how to further help residents.

“What we found was that after the water was turned back on, many large rooms were having difficulty venting their lines and turning on their pumps in a proper sequence, so we had this discussion with their plumbers on call and we think that relationship has worked very well,” added Wiggins.

At the meeting, Wiggins also addressed the decision to call on the Army Corps of Engineers.

“The idea of ​​bringing in the Corps of Engineers was to bring in the best of the best,” Wiggins said. “We want to make sure once again that we can anticipate any potential issues. We don’t want what happened the weekend before last to happen again, which is why the Corps of Engineers The military not only looked at our water infrastructure, they looked at our system as a whole and met with different personnel as we will accompany them to certain sites.

Wiggins added that the Department of Watersheds is still awaiting a response from the Army Corps of Engineers, which is “actively engaged in the inspection process” of the city’s water infrastructure.

“We don’t know exactly where that relationship will go. We know the Corps of Engineers will be helpful in identifying federal partners who will look at our water services,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins said the next steps will be to evaluate the Army Corps of Engineers’ initial findings and then committee action will follow.

“We are looking for ways to help those affected by the interruption of water services as much as possible,” Wiggins concluded.

Watch the city’s Utilities Committee’s full hearing online here.