City Requests Extension on Consent Decree Work

Mayor Kasim Reed and Commissioner Robert Hunter have asked regulatory agencies and the federal court for a 15-year extension on the deadline for the First Amended Consent Decree. The City presented a formal request to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper asking that the 2014 deadline for work on the Consent Decree be extended to 2029.

The request is being made because economic conditions, declining sales tax revenues and reduced water use have affected the City's ability to finance the massive infrastruc- ture program at the current rate of construction. The First Amended Consent Decree, which was negotiated in 1999, governs Sanitary Sewer Overflows and is approximately 50 percent complete. Construction on the Combined Sewer Overflow Consent Decree was completed in 2008.