Atlanta Council Members Seek Funding For Sewer Upgrades
On Wednesday, Atlanta City Council members are scheduled to consider asking voters to extend a 1 percent sales tax until 2020 to complete millions of dollars of federally mandated sewer upgrades and repairs.
Councilwoman Natalyn Archibong from District 5 has proposed legislation that if passed by the council would have city voters decide March 1, 2016, on the tax that was first established in 2004.
Archibong said the city needs to find $100 million to meet the federal mandate, but there are other projects that need attention, too.
“Now, we’ve got a big situation in Peoplestown,” she said, “And it would just be just a great idea to manage our stormwater runoff in a way that we don’t have to have tragedies.”
Lillian Govus, with the Department of Watershed Management, said if the sales tax isn’t approved, water bills will go up.
“We would have to look at re-evaluating our rate structure because there’s still such a large amount of infrastructure needs that we’ve got to accomplish,” she said.
The federal mandate for the sewer repairs has been in place since 1998.
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