Atlanta gets water/sewer extension
July 2014 was the deadline for the city of Atlanta to fully upgrade its water and sewer system, monitored by a federal judge, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
Now, a federal judge has extended that deadline by 13 years.
Susan Richardson, a partner at Kilpatrick, Townsend and Stockton, represented Atlanta in court. Since 2009, she says the recession, declining tax revenues and the nation’s highest water and sewer rates made it hard for Atlanta to come up with $4 billion in repair funding by the deadline.
“All that brought the city of Atlanta to approach EPA and EPD seeking some type of financial breathing room,” said Richardson.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash gave Atlanta an extra 13 years to breathe. During that time, the city will check its sewer fixes and focus heavily on water system repairs. In all, there’s still about a half billion dollars in work to be done.
The money comes from customers’ sewer and water rates and a special sales tax.
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