Atlanta remains under state of emergency amid ongoing water troubles

Originally Published: 03 JUN 24 08:40 ET

Updated: 03 JUN 24 11:28 ET

By Maxime Tamsett and Dakin Andone, CNN

(CNN) — Atlanta remains under a state of emergency Monday as it battles disruptions to its water service that first began last week, leaving a swath of a major city under boil water advisories and highlighting the pervasiveness of problems caused by America’s aging infrastructure.

“To the people of Atlanta, I do want to apologize that this has frustrated you and frustrated me this weekend,” Mayor Andre Dickens said on “CNN News Central” on Monday morning, three days after the first water main break was reported.

“This is not the way the city nor the visitors, residents intended to spend our weekend, having to boil water and deal with low pressure or water outages in certain areas.”

Atlanta Public Schools’ summer school and programs will not be held Monday as a result, and programs “will reconvene once the boil water advisories have been lifted,” a notice from the school district said. Non-essential employees have been told to work remotely.

The city has been plagued by water woes since Friday, when the first two of a series of water main breaks emerged along two pipes – one a 36-inch pipe, the other a 48-inch pipe – that Dickens said were about a century old.

Repairs were completed on one break near downtown Saturday evening, hours before Dickens declared a state of emergency. Repairs on the other break, in Midtown, have yet to be completed, and crews were working on it Monday.

Speaking to CNN, Dickens confirmed crews were still actively working that break, saying testing of water samples came “back negative.”

“Right now, most Atlantans have water, it’s just we want to make sure that they boil it out of a precautionary measure,” the mayor said.

“I’m very hopeful that in the next hour or so that we can lift that,” Dickens said of the advisory.

One of the pipes that failed was installed in 1910, while another dated from 1930, The mayor said.

The Atlanta Department of Watershed Management reported another possible break Sunday and said emergency repairs were completed on a 6-inch water main in the Candler Park neighborhood by late that afternoon, restoring water to 35 homes.

Collectively, the breaks and repairs in progress left parts of the city without water or under boil water advisories, forcing tourist attractions including the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola to shut down. Events, including two Megan Thee Stallion concerts scheduled for Friday and Saturday at State Farm Arena, were postponed.

The disruptions prompted Emory University Hospital Midtown to transfer dialysis patients to other hospitals and divert ambulances from its emergency department – though it resumed normal operations on Sunday, a spokesperson said.

In the meantime, the city has designated six fire stations where impacted residents are able to pick up water, according to the Department of Watershed Management.

“I know it has been a tough and frustrating day for many of you,” Dickens said Saturday in declaring the state of emergency, which allows the city to expedite access to resources for the repairs. “We all take this matter very seriously.”

Atlanta’s troubles in recent days are indicative of a broader issue with decaying infrastructure across the country. In the US and Canada, around 260,000 water main breaks cost $2.6 billion each year, according to a December 2023 study from Utah State University.

The study noted the average age of failing water mains is around 53 years and 33% of US and Canadian water mains are over 50 years old.

‘I take it seriously,’ mayor says of criticism

Dickens and the city have faced criticism in the wake of the water main breaks, in part for the pace of the response.

Dickens said he would address the criticism “head on,” telling CNN’s Kate Bolduan he had committed to updates every two hours to keep residents informed through the weekend.

“I take it seriously, I take it to heart,” Dickens said of the criticism. “Residents wanted to see more of me Saturday morning before the 2 p.m. press conference. I understand that, and I apologize.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.