MOST Set For Reauthorization Vote

Atlanta voters will have the opportunity to reauthorize the one-cent Municipal Option Sales Tax (MOST) that supports Clean Water Atlanta when they vote in the February 5 presidential primary. Since its original authorization in July 2004, the MOST has generated more than $323 million, which was targeted at a dollar-for-dollar rollback of the water/sewer rate increases necessary to support Atlanta’s court-mandated, $3.9 billion Clean Water Atlanta infrastructure program.

The sales tax applies to most products sold inside the City limits, excluding medical equipment and prescriptions, sales to Grady Hospital and other non-profit health care facilities, school lunches, Girl Scout cookies and automobiles. If the MOST is reauthorized, the City’s sales tax rate will remain at 8 percent for an additional four years. (Voters can reauthorize the MOST a final time in 2012.)

The MOST spreads the burden of the funding for the infrastructure overhaul to tourists, visitors and commuters who use the City’s water and sewer systems but do not pay City water/sewer bills. Atlanta has three-tiered water/sewer rates that reward conservation. Rate increases are different for each tier; however, without the MOST, rates on some tiers would have to increase as much as 47 percent to provide the funding necessary to complete the Clean Water Atlanta program.

Mayor Shirley Franklin proposed - and last Tuesday the Atlanta City Council approved – the allocation of $1 million to be used toward a toilet rebate program for Atlanta residents to replace older, water-wasting toilets with new, low-flow models.

The City’s $1 million contribution could fund as many as 12,000 rebates. Customers who replace their old toilets with 1.6-gpf toilets can receive a $50 rebate; those who install 1.28-gpf toilets can receive a $100 rebate. There is a limit of two rebates per household. Only toilets purchased after September 27, 2007 are eligible.

Toilets purchased prior to 1993 use between 3.5 and seven gpf. Replacing a 3.5-gpf toilet with a 1.6-gpf model saves about two gallons a flush or 54 percent of an average household’s water use. Replacing a 7-gpf toilet with a 1.6-gpf model saves 5.4 gallons a flush or 77 percent of an average household’s use. There are an estimated 46,000 structures within Atlanta’s service area with pre-1993 toilets.

To receive a rebate, Atlanta water/sewer customers must:

• Own/rent a residence that was built prior to 1993 and have fixtures not currently in compliance with current water efficiency plumbing code standards.

• Have a water account in good standing.

• Purchase and install a toilet from an approved list of 1.6- or 1.28-gallon-per-flush (gpf) toilets.

• Provide the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District with their most recent water/sewer bill.

• Provide the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District with proof of purchase (showing make, model, flow rate and installation.)


“Atlanta is making a major commitment to this project,” said Mayor Franklin. “We are putting our money on the line for a program that we believe will ultimately prove beneficial not just for our City, but for all of North Georgia. This program, along with the MOST which is up for reauthorization by the voters on February 5, will enable residents to conserve water and save money on their water bills.”

More information on the rebates is available at www.atlantawatershed.org and at www.northgeorgiawater.com/html/315.htm

DWM Touts 2007 Accomplishments

New water/sewer rates that are significantly lower than those proposed in 2003 took effect July 1, 2007. A five-year rate increase plan, approved by the City Council in 2003, would have necessitated an increase of more than 40 percent in 2008. The Water Rate Reduction Program (WRRP) that is financed by the Municipal Option Sales Tax (MOST), which Atlanta voters supported overwhelmingly in 2004, means that the increase will be about 10 percent.

• Completed the $25 million greenway acquisition program to acquire and protect properties near local waterways in Atlanta and eight neighboring counties. Acquisitions will protect 1,878 acres of greenways (24 miles), which are critical to stream quality in metropolitan Atlanta.
  
  
• Restored 1,725 linear feet of streambanks using natural methods.

• Completed extensive sewer separation and water main replacement in southeast and southwest Atlanta ( Greensferry and McDaniel basins and Stockade sub-basin), separating 33 miles of combined sewers and building more than 19 miles of new water mains. The project will ensure reliable drinking water and help eliminate sewer overflows in affected communities.

• Installed 31,000 meters at a cost of $5 million. The city-wide ATL Read Automated Meter Reading project to upgrade water meters will ensure the accuracy of customer billing.

• Completed water main replacement projects in a number of communities. Besides the water mains built as part of the sewer separation projects, the City constructed an additional 47 miles of water mains in Virginia-Highland, Spring Street/Georgia Tech, Bankhead and other communities.

• Evaluated 970 miles of sewers for defects, damage and capacity issues and rehabilitated 240 miles of sewers identified in the evaluation. This project ensures future sewer capacity in the affected areas and helps eliminate backups and overflows.

• Collected $1.4 million dollars from 2,104 illegally connected water consumers.

• Completed construction of the Custer Avenue CSO Storage and Dechlorination Facility located in southeast Atlanta, adding 10 million gallons to the current 34- million-gallon capacity. The project will help eliminate Combined Sewer Overflows in Southeast Atlanta.

• Supported Mayor Franklin’s water conservation campaign and responded to North Georgia’s severe drought conditions through enforcement of watering restrictions, leak repair and public education.
  
  

  
  

• Initiated the Small Business Development Program to provide training and technical assistance to small, minority and female-owned business preparing them to compete for work in the Clean Water Atlanta program to rehabilitate Atlanta's water and sewer infrastructure.
  

Conservation Workshop Available Online

A large-user conservation workshop jointly sponsored by the City of Atlanta and P2AD, a division of the state Department of Natural Resources, is available online at http://atlanta.acrobat.com/p13265116/. The workshop, which was attended by 82 representatives of Atlanta’s biggest water customers, including the Atlanta Braves, Georgia Tech, Sunny Delight, Georgia Power, American Golf Corp., Cousins Properties and numerous hotels, focused on innovative and unique ways to conserve water. It featured case studies of successful water conservation efforts by Delta Air Lines, Emory University, the Dublin Veterans Administration Hospital and Melaver, Inc., as well as presentations on “Cooling Tower and Boiler Water Efficiency” by the Aquatrol division of Momar and “A Continual Improvement Approach to Water Management” by Georgia Tech. All handouts from the workshop are available in downloadable format.

While aimed at large users, information presented during the workshop is useful to all commercial, industrial and institutional customers. “We urge all our customers to take advantage of the tips presented,” said Commissioner Rob Hunter. “We are delighted with the response to the workshop. It is a real indication that Atlanta’s business community is aware of the issues and working to address them.”

The workshop is one of a series of initiatives the Department is undertaking in its efforts to meet Mayor Shirley Franklin’s goal of a 10 percent reduction in water usage citywide. The City also is spending $1 billion on drinking water infrastructure improvements to repair leaks and repair and replace meters and mains; helping finance water conservation audits for large customers; and taking steps to reduce usage among its various departments.

Judge Reiterates Support for City

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash today reiterated his confidence in the progress of the City’s Clean Water Atlanta program and vowed his continued support of Atlanta’s Consent Decree compliance efforts. The judge indicated that there is a significant federal interest in Atlanta’s Consent Decree compliance program, and that interest would not be compromised. “The Consent Decrees will be complied with,” he said. “I am committed to that.”

During a November Clean Water Atlanta status conference, the Judge offered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the State, the City and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper an opportunity to discuss issues of concern regarding the Consent Decrees. The Consent Decrees mandate that the City upgrade its sewer system to reduce pollution in the Chattahoochee River.

The City had expressed concern that Senate Bill 306, which would create a new regional water and sewer authority would strip Atlanta of resources necessary to comply with the Consent Decrees. The City pointed out that the bill, if introduced and passed, would give a newly created “Greater Fulton Water Authority” the right to take City of Atlanta water/sewer infrastructure outside the City limits, resulting in the transfer of assets that generate $35 million in revenue, a figure representing about half-a-billion dollars in bonding capacity.

The judge indicated that completion of the Consent Decree programs was not negotiable. “I will exercise every power I have to provide the City with whatever it takes to finish the job,” he said at a Consent Decree status conference. “Whatever it takes to get this done, I will do.”

Judge Thrash, who oversaw the negotiation of the Consent Decrees in 1998 and 1999, complimented Mayor Franklin and the City for the success of the Clean Water Atlanta program. “Of all the CSO (combined sewer overflow) projects, one isn’t finished,” he said. “That is not something I anticipated when I signed the Consent Decrees. Frankly, I expected delays, confusion, incompetence and excuses.” The City’s efforts to date are a “remarkable accomplishment,” he said.

A few years ago it was only a thought, but now work is well under way on the rehabilitation of Atlanta's ailing water and sewer infrastructure. The results of the $3.9 billion project are already apparent and making a difference. Click here to watch the video.

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Official E-newsletter for the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management • © 2008