Mayor Franklin and Councilmembers Mitchell, Muller and Shook
Set the Record Straight:
Atlanta’s Crumbling Water and Sewer System Must Be Fixed
Today, Mayor Shirley Franklin and Councilmembers Ceasar Mitchell, Clair Muller and Howard Shook held a press conference to clearly state that Atlanta’s Crumbling Water and Sewer System must be fixed and the choice available to the voters of the City of Atlanta on July 20th is how to pay the cost of fixing the dilapidated system.
Mayor Franklin issued the following statement:
“Let’s Stick to the Facts.
The $3.2 billion Clean Water Atlanta program has been thoroughly reviewed by independent engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the State Environmental Protection Division, the Federal Courts, and nationally renowned experts, including Georgia Tech President Dr. Wayne Clough, who served as chair of the Clean Water Atlanta panel and Lawrence Roth, Deputy Executive Director of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), at the City’s request.
The objective experts reviewed and assessed the technical and scientific merits, costs, schedule and quality of life for a plan to improve Atlanta's water system. In fact, in telephone conversations with Lawrence Roth, the ASCE made it clear that they laud our efforts to take aggressive, thoughtful and courageous leadership to correct the City's water and sewer issues. Their written offer is limited to assisting in setting up another Clough-type panel, which they served on in the past and would be redundant.
- All reviews confirm that the City must take a comprehensive approach to repairing our dilapidated water and sewer system
- All reviews concur that the City’s plan can meet its goals by 2007 and 2014 respectively, correcting in a decade, problems that have gotten worse for nearly half a century
- All reviews concur that Atlanta’s plan is the fastest most cost-effective way to insure clean water.
A recent ad in the AJC proclaimed, "the potential $1.79 billion identified by the Fulton County Review & Analysis (in conjunction with Parsons Engineering) deserves a closer look." Nothing could be further from the truth.
Even Fulton County Manager Thomas C. Andrews disclaimed the validity of the alleged analysis of the clean water program in his letter dated June 18th. Andrews’ concluding paragraph states:
‘The memorandum was not reviewed, signed off or approved by any of the County's professional engineers. The memorandum was not a Public Works Department report and had not been reviewed or approved by the Public Works Director, Deputy County Manager or County Manager. The memorandum was simply rudimentary and preliminary staff work that, as you have been told by the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners and the Mayor of the City of Atlanta, was "the opinion of one individual" and did not and does not represent any official county position.’
The people of Atlanta, thanks to the leadership of Governor Sonny Perdue, Speaker Terry Coleman, Speaker Pro Tem Eric Johnson, the Atlanta-Fulton County delegation and the leadership of the Georgia House and Senate, have a chance to choose on July 20th an alternative to high rates.
If the proposed sales tax passes, the City will rollback every penny collected for the 4 years it is in effect.
If it doesn’t pass, water rates will nearly triple over the next five years.
We called this press conference to set the record straight.
The City has called for an election to let the people decide.
Vote July 20th.”
Copies of Fulton County Manager Thomas Andrews’ letter of June 18, 2004 and of the American Society of Civil Engineers letter of June 23, 2004 were made available at the press conference and are available upon request.
They will be made available on the city website at www.atlantaga.gov.