A “recovery fund” to assist small business owners impacted by the city of Atlanta’s water crisis is being established by the city.
Mayor Andre Dickens told the Atlanta City Council at its Monday meeting that the new recovery fund would help small businesses “adversely affected” by the water woes that started Friday.
“We know the crucial part that our small businesses play in our lives and our economy and making sure that we have thriving neighbors,” Dickens told council during an appearance in chambers. “We want to help them regain their footing if they were affected by these events from this weekend.”
Major water main breaks in Vine City and Midtown crippled much of the city over the weekend, including many restaurants and other businesses that were forced to shut down because of water outages or low pressure.
Councilmember Matt Westmoreland introduced the legislation, backed by the entire council, to create the recovery fund. It calls for up to $5 million of city funds be transferred to Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development agency.
Invest Atlanta would administer the money. The current legislation does not explain who would be eligible for financial assistance or how the funding would be distributed — as a loan or grant. The legislation will go through committee meetings next week where such details are expected to be finalized. A full council vote could happen at the June 17 meeting.
The mayor came before council to thank members after they approved his historic combined $2.75 billion budget for 2025. He also addressed the city’s water crisis and told the council the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers would be in Atlanta on Tuesday to help with evaluating the city’s water utility system.
“They will be here with boots on the ground to help us,” he said. “We have sought their assistance because they are the government entity that has the most actual experience in the type of crisis that we are in, with crumbling and aging infrastructure.”
Interim Chief Operating Officer LaChandra Butler Burks told the council earlier in the meeting that the city is repairing pipes from the 1920s to the 1940s, necessitating assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other outside experts.
“Our infrastructure is crumbling. We do know that, and we make no arguments against that,” Burks said.
Atlanta Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Al Wiggins told the council a “comprehensive inspection” of some 3,000 linear miles of pipes is necessary to ensure the city’s water infrastructure is safe.
“We just have to keep in mind that the utility infrastructure is subgrade [below a road] and that everything has a life cycle,” he said.
Wiggins said the city is instituting a quality insurance team to go back and do more extensive repairs at the major water main breaks.
Wiggins said one of his priorities in the comprehensive evaluation is to look at areas in the city with the most density “where a failure of the infrastructure would have the greatest impact that’s harmful.”
“It all has to begin with a comprehensive inspection,” Wiggins said. “I get that the thought is that this goes beyond the condition of the infrastructure, but also understand we would be remiss if we did not look into how we treat the infrastructure.
“Regardless if we replaced the infrastructure today, how we treat it and making sure that we’re handling it properly, and being a good steward of the resources that are given to us is extremely important.”
He also said the city should look at contractors who tie into the city’s system for new developments to ensure certificates of occupancy are issued as part of the new water main connections.
Councilmember Antonio Lewis, chair of the utilities commission, plans to hold a June 11 work session to investigate and ask more questions about the water crisis. The work session will follow the utilities committee regular meeting that starts at 10 a.m. and is open to the public.
This story has been updated.