About 50,000 Atlanta water customers must boil their tap water after a power failure at a pumping station caused pressure to drop across part of the city’s water system.
What’s Happening: The Atlanta Department of Watershed Management issued the advisory Friday after an internal power failure at the Hemphill Electric Pumping Station cut water pressure. Power has been restored and the station is back up and running. Crews are now watching pressure levels and collecting water samples, which must be tested before the advisory can be lifted.
Who’s Affected: The advisory covers the downtown corridor and the neighborhoods of Vine City, Grant Park, Mechanicsville, Peoplestown, Pittsburgh, Inman Park, and Cabbagetown. Residents can check whether their address falls inside the affected area at bit.ly/43thXwU.
What Residents Must Do: Anyone in the affected area should bring tap water to a full, rolling boil for at least one minute before using it to drink, cook, brush teeth, make ice, or prepare food. The department recommends bottled water for infants and people with weakened immune systems.
What’s Important: The advisory stays in place until water quality test results confirm the water is safe. Those results are required before the advisory can be lifted, regardless of when the station came back online.
The Path Forward: The advisory is expected to lift by 1 p.m. Saturday, May 23, if test results come back clean. If results are delayed or show a problem, the advisory would stay in place past that time.
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
