The agreement, called a consent decree, forced the city’s Watershed Management Department for the better part of two decades to heavily invest in upgrading the city sewers, possibly at the expense of maintaining the water supply system, the audit found.
“Focus on consent decree projects may have resulted in under-investment in drinking water infrastructure,” the city’s audit found.
Infrastructure needs At a Atlanta City Council utilities committee meeting last week, the city’s watershed commissioner, Kishia Powell, described the struggles her agency has had trying to get a handle on the water loss problem.
“We have been trying to improve our accounting for water loss,” Powell said.
An under-investment Today, the Watershed Management Department is in charge of both the city’s sewer system and the drinking water system.
Since 2003, the city has spent nearly $ 2 billion to comply with terms of a consent decree which required repair to its sewer system and that may have have led to neglect of the drinking water system, the city audit last found.
“Focus on consent decree projects may have resulted in under-investment in drinking water infrastructure,” the city’s audit found.
‘Salaries a bit all over the place’ At the council committee meeting last week, Powell not only faced questions about the outage from elected leaders who oversee her department, but also criticism from current and former city employees.
Powell declined to address allegations of patronage within her department, but she said she was meeting with employees to hear them out, including some of the employees at committee.
“We are trying to work through them to get to a better place.