Day after day I work with Commissioner Hunter and hundreds of dedicated employees and experienced professionals to ensure that the City’s Clean Water Program meets federal standards and that the city fulfills its obligations to repair and upgrade our century old water/sewer system. We have made that commitment to Judge Thrash (the district court judge charged with overseeing the implementation of the Consent Decrees), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Georgia Environmental Protection Department, (EPD), the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, downstream communities and to the people of Atlanta.
Judge Thrash praised our commitment in a Status Hearing in late 2007, when he said, “The work’s been done. It’s been done on time. I think, pretty much done within budget. And it really is a remarkable accomplishment.” He also said, “The Consent Decrees will be complied with… And I know the City’s committed to that.”
With the completion of the West CSO Tunnel in December 2008, the City has completed the first Consent Decree, which governs Combined Sewer Overflows. It is on track to complete on schedule the judge’s order which governs Sanitary Sewer Overflows and has a deadline of 2014.
I am extraordinarily proud of the City’s commitment to Clean Water and to its management of this complex $4 billion program. Contrary to Mary Norwood’s claims, the KPMG audit was, in fact, a vindication of the Department of Watershed Management’s performance. The vast majority of the observations and recommendations were not considered essential or critical in nature. In fact, the Department agreed either in whole or partially with 78 of the 83 recommendations, disagreeing with five recommendations that were viewed by independent utility professionals as medium- or low-risk. The most important fact, though, is that the city is meeting its court-ordered milestones.
People have short memories. In 2003 Atlanta was facing a moratorium on all new construction in the City because of its violation of basic water standards. We avoided a moratorium only by making the necessary investments in clean water, and thus saw Atlanta grow by 100,000 people (the largest one decade population growth in the City’s history) and add more than $3 billion to its tax base. We are – as a direct result of our investment in Clean Water Atlanta – the second fastest growing city in America. If Mary Norwood had her way we would still be a city of 400,000 with a declining property tax base, no new jobs, and no new residents.
Day after day Councilmember Mary Norwood promises to dismantle this nationally-praised program and return to a time when the City ignored its responsibilities and discharged untreated wastewater into the Chattahoochee River. So instead of continuing the program to clean up the Chattahoochee River, Norwood promises to put Atlanta in jeopardy of violating the Consent Decrees and the court order as well as raise serious questions and concerns from Wall Street to the Gold Dome to Congress. Her recent comments in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reflect the view of someone who has either has forgotten the facts or chooses to ignore them. She said, “Water-sewer mismanagement exemplifies a City hall in disarray. I fought to audit how money was actually spent; overriding the mayor’s veto, our investigations found a giant shell game; money passing from one department to another, the department not billing customers correctly, wrongly disconnecting service and putting on wrong size meter covers. We must get back to basic; good management, hiring good people, financial transparency.".
This is reckless language that sullies Atlanta’s hard fought national reputation, contradicts a federal judge’s review, and flies in the face of state and federal oversight reports. Atlanta has set a new high national standard for tackling the complex expensive problem of upgrading its entire water system, a fact recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Congress, a federal judge, environmental organizations charged with protecting our water resources, and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. It’s time for Mary Norwood to recognize it as well.
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