Integrated Planning in Action
2019 Integrated Plan for the City o
Cook Park capacity relief project.
Photo courtesy of J. Cory Rayburn.
*.?. ™ ITY OF ATLANTA DEPARTMENT OF
Wmm watershed
management
Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, home to approximately 500,000 people
and the center of a metropolitan area of more than 6 million people. The
city operates separate sanitary and combined sewer systems, which
connect to three wastewater treatment facilities that discharge to the
Chattahoochee River. The combined sewer system also includes remote
treatment facilities that provide partial treatment of combined sewer
overflows (CSOs) during heavy storms. In addition to these wastewater
sewer systems, Atlanta operates a storm sewer system1 that discharges
to the Chattahoochee and Ocmulgee Rivers. The Chattahoochee is
popular for tubing, paddle boarding, and canoeing, and was the first U.S.
river to be named a National Water Trail.
Challenges
Excess storm water entering Atlanta's combined sewer system during
storms causes CSOs. The wastewater treatment facilities may also reach
maximum capacity because of excess flows from the combined sewer
or inflow into the sanitary sewer system during these storms. The CSO
remote treatment facilities are designed to reduce pollution from these
overflows; they go into operation at certain CSO points when the wastewater treatment facilities are at
maximum flow treatment capacity. In 2015, some of these remote "partial treatment" facilities did not treat
to levels that met water quality standards for metals, so the Georgia Department of Natural Resources
issued Atlanta two combined sewer system permits that required the city to develop an integrated plan
to address discharges from the partial treatment facilities. The permits specified that green infrastructure
and innovative technology should be considered as mechanisms to protect human health and improve
water quality in the integrated plan. In addition, the city must comply with permits for its wastewater
treatment facilities and a stormwater permit for discharges from the storm sewer system.
EPA Region 4
500,000 population
CSO 11 MS4
1 Storm sewers and storm sewer systems can also be referred to as municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s). Stormwater
discharge permits can be referred to as MS4 permits.

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Atlanta's Performance Criteria
¦	Risk mitigation	¦ Sustainability initiatives
¦	Regulatory compliance	¦ Visibility
¦	Operational efficiency	¦ Safety and reliability
¦	Durability/resiliency
Integrated Planning in Action
In 2015, Atlanta began an integrated planning
process to meet permit requirements and reduce
the use of its remote partial treatment facilities.
The city developed a process for identifying
projects that would reduce runoff volumes and
pollutant loadings, then evaluated these projects
based on cost (i.e., whether they were possible
under available funding) and how well they met
performance criteria (see box above). Atlanta's final
integrated plan did not identify specific projects
but rather committed to pursue projects through
the proposed evaluation and selection process
that protect the environment, support economic
development, and improve quality of life as
priorities for implementation.
Results
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources
approved the Integrated Plan for the City of Atlanta
in 2019. Using the project selection process
outlined in the integrated plan, the city designed
the Rodney Cook Sr. Park, a green infrastructure
project designed to alleviate flooding by capturing
and storing up to 10 million gallons of stormwater
using rain gardens, stormwater planters, and
constructed wetlands. The plan called for this
project to be completed in 2020, and to date it has
helped mitigate CSOs.
Historic Fourth Ward Park at riight.
Photo courtesy of HDR.
SEPA
For more information, visit EPA's integrated planning Report to Congress webpage at:
https://www.epa.qov/npdes/inteqrated-planninq-municipal-stormwater-and-wastewater	EPA-832-F-21-010 I June 2021

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