ATLANTA– Atlanta residents no longer need to boil water before drinking it, officials said Thursday, six days after a water pipe break west of the center of the affected service and boosted the advisory.
Normal water flow and pressure was restored across the city on Wednesday, but more time was needed to test for bacteria to ensure the water was safe to drink.
The first break occurred on Friday and was repaired on Saturday. A second leak that started later Friday was not fixed until Tuesday.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Wednesday he would do so support a plan to spend $5 million to reimburse businesses for losses during the water outage. He also promised an assessment of the city’s infrastructure and the deployment of monitors to spot leaking pipes.
The boil water advisory never covered the entire city and was lifted Monday for the most affected areas. But it remained in effect for downtown and Midtown Atlanta, as well as some neighborhoods to the east.
The water outages in Atlanta are the latest example of failing infrastructure across the country. A 2022 crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, with a water system that has been in trouble for a long time, leaving many residents without safe running water for weeks. Other cities included Flint, Michhave also struggled to provide residents with safe drinking water.
The first term Democratic mayor has been under fire for Atlanta’s response to the leaks, especially since Dickens left the city after the first major leak to travel to Memphis, Tennessee, where he held a fundraiser for his 2025 re-election campaign and met with that city’s leaders to investigate crime and discuss other issues.
Dickens’ government said it was not clear the first leak west of downtown would cause major disruption if it traveled further. A second major leak in the city’s Midtown neighborhood began later Friday.