In the late 1990s, Atlanta earned the unfortunate reputation of having some of the nation's dirtiest waterways. Like many other cities across the country, its water infrastructure had been steadily deteriorating. Aging sewer systems were spewing so much pollution into local streams and rivers that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state's Environmental Protection Division, and an advocacy group called the Chattahoochee River Keeper sued Atlanta for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The city settled the suit in 1998, agreeing to upgrade its sewers.
But rather than just to meet the court's minimum requirements, Atlanta has instead embarked on a broad new water management strategy that may serve as a model for other cities. City officials thoroughly examined the problem -- taking into account quality of life, projected economic growth, and the city's relationship with its downstream neighbors -- and decided it would be in Atlanta's long-term best interest to better manage the entire region's watershed.
Mayor Shirley Franklin took up the challenge by setting a goal to make Atlanta's waterways the cleanest in the nation within a decade. Calling herself the nation's "sewer mayor," she unveiled a comprehensive program last year called Clean Water Atlanta. The initiative aims to control everything from the sources of pollution, to the systems that handle waste, to the water quality of the streams and rivers into which runoff ultimately flows.
"It doesn't do you any good to clean up the waterways if you are not also protecting them," said Janet Ward, an official with Clean Water Atlanta.
To stop downstream pollution, the city has begun to separate the physical systems that handle storm runoff from those that handle wastewater. Much of Atlanta's problem stems from the fact that large sections of the two systems are combined. So when the flow is too great -- as it can be during a heavy rainstorm -- the runoff, waste and all, is discharged directly into local streams. The 1998 settlement mandates that the two systems be 90 percent separated by 2007. The improvements are projected to reduce instances of sewer overflow from a current average of 300 times a year to 16. The city intends to have the two systems entirely separated by 2025.
With comprehensive structural improvements under way, Franklin's next goal is bureaucratic reorganization. She has brought together under a new Watershed Management Department officials who oversee the city's drinking water, storm overflow, and waste systems. Now, where three bodies once worked independently of one another with no cooperation, Atlanta now has a single agency accountable for all water-quality issues.
Within that department is a new public storm-water agency that aims to provide a consistent revenue stream for the upkeep and improvement of the storm-water sewer system. Meanwhile, with two-thirds of all pollution coming from storm runoff, the new agency is taking a step back to examine methods for keeping that runoff from directly entering the waterways in the first place. The Greenway Acquisition Project, for example, acquires land along riverbanks in order to limit development. That cuts down on the creation of new pollutants near the water and creates a natural buffer that keeps pollutant-heavy runoff from finding its way into the city's streams.
Finally, the Clean Water Atlanta initiative has created a long-term monitoring program with the U.S. Geological Survey, public health experts, and environmental scientists to regularly evaluate water quality at 40 sites across the region.
Franklin's efforts reflect a broader movement to modernize the first generation of air- and water-quality regulations that were enacted in the early 1970s. The 1972 Clean Water Act, which was largely successful in its time, focused regulation on so-called "point sources" -- anything through which pollution enters a waterway, such as drainpipes or man-made ditches.
But, like the water infrastructure it helped to create, that regulatory framework is showing its age. Pollution does not enter waterways in a few discrete places; the sources are more diffused. Failing sewer systems, fertilizers, timber operations, and oil-contaminated storm water are all culprits. In fact, the EPA estimates that, absent repairs, upgrades, and more systematic approaches to water quality management, the country may lose the environmental gains it has achieved since the passage of the Clean Water Act 30 years ago.
Under prodding by Franklin, Atlanta is already ahead of schedule in implementing
many of its projects. Although cost has some people concerned -- the whole
project has an estimated price tag of $3.5 billion -- the mayor argues that
the city will not shirk its responsibility. She recently wrote, "Atlanta not
only has to fix its sewer system -- it wants to."
