A key Atlanta water main break is now fixed, but a boil advisory is still in

CNN
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Crews in Atlanta have completed repairs to a key water main whose break, among others, contributed to a huge swath of the city spending days without safe drinking water – though a boil advisory remains in effect for many homes and businesses “out of an abundance of caution,” officials said Wednesday morning.

Water service is “slowly being brought back online to allow system pressures to rebuild,” they said in a news release, following a vast, sometimes intermittent breakdown that began Friday and highlighted the decaying infrastructure criss-crossing a major Southern hub and many other major American cities.

“The past few days were a call to action for all of us,” Mayor Andre Dickens said at a Wednesday morning news conference. “Every city in America has aging infrastructure, and we will rise to meet this moment to ensure that residents and businesses alike have reliable access to water.”

A boil water advisory is still in place Wednesday for a portion of Atlanta from downtown to Midtown and across several eastern Atlanta neighborhoods after crews completed repairs to the broken water main at 11th and West Peachtree streets in Midtown, restoring water to nearby customers. The state Environmental Protection Division will notify the city when the advisory can be lifted – hopefully within 18 hours, the commissioner of the Department of Watershed Management said during the 10 a.m. news conference.

That timeline is based on a “incubation” period, Commissioner Al Wiggins Jr. said. “We cannot rush that timeframe, nor do we want to. We want to ensure that we provide safe drinking water to our residents.”

Dickens thanked residents for their patience, acknowledging the “disruption wasn’t easy for you.”

“We are happy to be on the other side of it,” Dickens said, even as the boil advisory remained in place for tens of thousands.

“That said, I will continue to be out and about this week, continuing to do wellness checks on our senior facilities, as well as speaking with our small business that may have been impacted by this situation,” added Dickens, who has been criticized as slow to respond publicly to the crisis and his administration slammed as ineffective early on in communicating updates.

The mayor reiterated the city is developing a $5 million fund to assist affected businesses and a plan to enact recommendations made by the US Army Corps of Engineers, which is helping evaluate Atlanta’s water infrastructure to tackle any vulnerabilities.

Wiggins acknowledged the city “will have more water main breaks,” but said the crisis that unfolded in recent days derived from a “unique set of circumstances.”

Indeed, no sooner had the city announced the repair in Midtown than its Department of Watershed Management announced another “interruption of water service” to the north, on Piedmont Road.

Crews had to turn off a 12-inch water main to make repairs, the department said on X, noting the outage “is affecting one apartment complex, and one hydrant.”

The city’s water difficulties began midday Friday, when the first two of a series of water main breaks emerged along two pipes that Dickens said were about a century old – one 36 inches, the other 48 inches. One of the failed pipes was installed in 1910, while another dated to 1930, he told CNN on Monday.

Dickens on Saturday declared a state of emergency as a string of breaks left parts of the city without water or under boil advisories and caused significant disruptions to medical and educational facilities in the city.

Emory University Hospital Midtown began diverting ambulances from its emergency department and transferred dialysis patients to other hospitals – though normal operations resumed Sunday. Atlanta Public Schools also canceled many of its summer programs on Monday and Tuesday, saying they would resume once water service returned.

Repairs on a break near downtown were finished Saturday, allowing the city to lift a far…