City of Atlanta

Department of Watershed Management

Press Release

October 2, 2009 – Commissioner Rob Hunter has announced that all RM Clayton treatment systems are back online just a little over a week after flooding inundated the 74-year-old wastewater treatment plant, shutting it down and causing releases of untreated sewage into the Chattahoochee River. He pronounced the rapid repair “an outstanding example of our commitment to our customers and our rivers.”

According to David St. Pierre, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment and Collection, which has responsibility for the City’s four wastewater treatment plants, the City has rented a blower complex that has brought the secondary treatment system back online. The primary and tertiary systems, which suffered significant electrical damage, were brought back online within 36 hours of the flood, eliminating the flow of sewage into the river. St. Pierre estimates it will take two weeks to re-establish the micro-organisms crucial to the secondary treatment process and says that effluent quality is improving every day. Permanent repairs are ongoing.

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The Department of Watershed Management provides drinking water and wastewater collection and treatment services to more than 1 million people over a 650-square-mile area.

Press releases