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Atlanta's water crisis: Watershed Commissioner speaks about next steps to address city's aging water infrastructure

The city's Watershed Commissioner, Al Wiggins, spoke to the committee about the efforts to address Atlanta's water crisis, which began on Friday, May 31.

ATLANTA — Editor's note: The video in this story is from a previous update with Atlanta's mayor. 

Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management Commissioner provided an update Tuesday during the city's utilities committee meeting following the water main breaks. 

The city's Watershed Commissioner, Al Wiggins, spoke to the committee about the efforts to address Atlanta's water crisis, which began on Friday, May 31. 

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

In total, Wiggins said Atlanta Watershed crews responded to over 85,000 emergency calls regarding water outages and disruptions citywide. 

"At this point, we're not receiving any complaints about any water pressure fluctuations or any outages; we work with an outside plumber to work with facilities that were experiencing fluctuations in water pressure, and that relationship worked well," Wiggins said at the meeting on Tuesday. 

Credit: City of Atlanta

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

What's next after Atlanta's water main breaks? 

Wiggins said the Department of Watershed Management is in the process of reviewing a resolution introduced by the Atlanta City Council to aid 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 panel of experts with experience in water infrastructure who will help implement solutions. Dickens also previously discussed a $5 million grant to help business owners impacted by water main breaks. 

Watch Atlanta mayor's full interview

RELATED: 'We're going to get through this together' | Atlanta mayor speaks about next steps, plans to address water crisis

Help for residents after Atlanta's water main break 

Wiggins said DMW officials are also conducting a comprehensive review of customers who were impacted by the water outages systemwide.  

"We have a few ideas about how to compensate customers who had momentarily loss of water services," Wiggins said at the meeting. 

Wiggins added he's also meeting with the executive leadership team in the mayor's office to continue the discussion about how to help residents further. 

"What we found was post of the water being restored many of the larger venues had difficulties with venting their lines, getting their pumps activated in a proper sequence so we had that discussion with their on-call plumbers and we think that relationship worked very well," Wiggins added. 

Army Corps of Engineers assessing city's water infrastructure 

At the meeting, Wiggins also addressed the decision to bring in the Army Corps of Engineers. 

"Bringing the Corps of Engineers in was our thought of bringing the best of the best in," Wiggins said. "We want to make sure again that we can stay ahead of any potential issue. We don't want a reoccurrence of what occurred the weekend before last, so Army Corps of Engineers has not only been looking at our water infrastructure, they're looking at our system as a whole and met with various staff members to the extent that we will escort them to certain sites." 

Wiggins added that the Department of Watershed is still waiting to hear back 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 this relationship will go. We do know that the Corps of Engineers will be helpful to identify federal partners to look at our water utilities," Wiggins said. 

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

"We are looking at ways to make those who are impacted through the interruption of water services whole as possible," Wiggins concluded. 

Watch the city's full utilities committee hearing online here.

 

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