Inside City Hall: Georgia’s federal lawmakers support Atlanta’s water repairs

After a series of severe main breaks left thousands of Atlanta residents without water last month, local leaders said they couldn’t tackle the problem alone. Since then, Georgia’s federal delegation has pushed legislation in Washington, D.C. to support repairs to Atlanta’s water infrastructure.

U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock along with House Rep. Nikema Williams introduced legislation last week that will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to launch infrastructure projects across the city including upgrades to Atlanta’s water, wastewater and stormwater systems.

The federal agency was previously tasked with a $1 million review of the city’s water infrastructure after the widespread water outages in early June. The two pieces of legislation are likely just the first round of help coming from the federal government to get ahead of any more potential breakdowns in the system.

Last week, Atlanta City Council held a work session on the chain of events that disrupted water service for nearly an entire week. City officials said the total dollar amount it would take to repair and replace vulnerable points in the system goes far beyond Atlanta’s budget.

‘We don’t have enough money here to do it today,” said Council member Antonio Lewis, chair of the utilities committee. “The goal is to piece it together — that means county, state and federal government.”

Atlanta is also working to fend off litigation from environmental groups over discharges of poorly treated sewage into the Chattahoochee River. The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper alerted the city of its intent to sue over potentially dangerous discharges from Atlanta’s wastewater facilities.

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Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

A group of top public safety officials working to reduce the number of repeat offenders committing crimes in Atlanta say that disconnects in the judicial system and a lack of resources are hindering progress.

In an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News, the group — that included Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Fulton Sheriff Patrick Labat and Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum — outlined the challenges of keeping career criminals off the street.

During the interview, law enforcement officials talked about their battle against conversion switches — small plastic devices known as “auto sears” or “Glock switches” that can automatically fire more than one round at a time.

While banned at the federal level, there’s no state statute outlawing the use of the gun modifiers. Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration previously pressed the state legislature to ban the conversion devices but the effort saw no movement under the Gold Dome.

U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said that individuals can obtain the switches through purchases online but the can also be made by a 3D printer.

“It’s not our job to encourage legislation, at least not mine,” he said. “But it would be helpful if there were an option for our state partners to be able to address that problem.”

The interview highlighted the deep public safety policy divide between the state’s GOP-controlled legislature and Atlanta’s Democratic officials. During the conversation, Willis also slammed state leaders.

“The reality is we have a lot of politicians out here — someone that talks about being tough on crime or safety being an important factor to them,” she said. “Well, we have to get a state that properly funds the GBI and that makes sure that police officers have all of the resources that they (need).”

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City Council is on recess beginning this week through August 5. We are also taking a short hiatus from the Inside City Hall newsletter until lawmakers return.

In the meantime, let us know what you want to see more of in the weekly roundup!

Credit: Miguel Martinez

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