The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority announced a hefty $29 million in infrastructure loans to the City of Atlanta’s water infrastructure as part of a $118 million statewide package aimed at improving water quality.
In Georgia, three low-interest loans were granted. Each loan lasts 20 years and will cost the city about three percent interest. The first is a $5.9 million sum from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to upgrade the Flint River pump station. It’s a 40-year-old critical sewage pump station that handles 15 million gallons per day. GEFA said it’s “at the end of its useful life.”
According to GEFA, the pump is “posing a risk to operations at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The $5.9 million loan will be used to replace the pump and control systems to prevent any issues and set the station up for long-term reliability. It’s paid for by the state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The other two loans will both go to the Chattahoochee Water Treatment Plant, one of the city’s three water treatment plants. It provides about 35 percent of Atlanta and Fulton County’s drinking water.
But the plant was built in 1961, and in 2018, the city kicked off a $34.2 million project to improve and replace parts of the plant to keep it in good shape. Now, GEFA has granted a $10 million loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to upgrade the plant’s equipment.
The equipment upgrades will increase efficiency, add components to keep any failed components from taking out the whole system and reduce service outages for city residents. An additional $13 million loan from the state-funded Georgia Fund will help with improvements, paying to replace the discharge piping at the plant.
The $23 million total will all be dedicated to making sure residents have safe drinking water and reliable service.
GEFA’s hefty loan announcement comes in the wake of controversy around Atlanta’s largest wastewater treatment facility. This year, the city agreed to pay a nearly $300,000 penalty from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division after it found the RM Clayton water and sewage treatment plant had spilled wastewater into the Chattahoochee River dozens of times.
Today, officials say the Clayton plant is close to compliance. Dickens has also tackled water safety issues on the local front, with a proposed $2 billion plan to replace hundreds of miles of pipes and water assets in the aging infrastructure system over the next 20 years.
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