Atlanta wrote off $61 million in unpaid water bills, and the debt still grew by $39 million

The City of Atlanta wrote off more water and sewer debt by council vote than administratively in fiscal years 2024 and 2025, according to the City Auditor’s August 2026 follow-up report, which states that Watershed Management “legislatively wrote off 2,771 water and sewer accounts, totaling $35,101,943 (see Exhibit 8) in fiscal years 2024 and 2025” and “also administratively wrote off $26 million from 38,754 accounts.”1 The $26 million administrative figure is rounded in the report; added to the legislative amount it gives about $61.1 million, against the nearly $62 million in write-offs since 2023 that CBS News Atlanta reported, and the split between the two kinds of write-off has not appeared in the coverage reviewed for this story.1,2

The legislative portion was authorized in two actions the report names: “Ordinance No. 24-O-1180, adopted by City Council in May 2024, authorized the chief financial officer to write off 2,373 water and wastewater accounts as uncollectible, totaling $30,086,349. Resolution 25-R-3430, adopted in May 2025, authorized the write-off of 398 accounts totaling $5,015,594.”3 Those votes were the first legislative write-offs since 2019, a gap the same audit office had flagged: the City Auditor’s January 2024 audit found that “the department’s current write-off practices do not reflect their written procedures; there are accounts eligible for write-off, but the department has not completed a legislative write-off since November 2019.”4 CBS News Atlanta reported the audit team noted the write-off total was an improvement from the years prior.2

The arrears balance grew even as the write-offs were taken: the city cleared about $61.1 million from its books in fiscal years 2024 and 2025, while between June 2023 and April 2026 the arrears balance rose about $39 million, or 19%, to over $236 million, the follow-up report states.1,5,6

The city’s own two offices do not agree on the size of that balance. Atlanta News First reported on Sept. 22, 2026 that when it asked the Department of Watershed Management for the specific data and records supporting its lower figure of about $184 million, the department, in that outlet’s words, “admitted it does not have that documentation.”7,8 Atlanta News First reported on Sept. 16, 2026 that Watershed Commissioner Greg Eyerly presented figures that, in that outlet’s words, “differed slightly from the auditor’s findings,” quoting him as saying, “We looked through what was reported to us. The audit showed 236 million delinquent accounts; our numbers show 184 million” — figures the same outlet later described as dollar amounts rather than account counts.9,10,11 The same Atlanta News First story reported the remark “Other than that, we agree with the findings of the audit”; the excerpt of that story obtained for this piece does not name the speaker.12 In its Sept. 18, 2026 story, Atlanta News First reported that it had asked Watershed Management for records supporting the $184 million figure and that the department had not yet responded, and that auditors said Watershed Management excludes accounts categorized in adjustment phases, active installment plans, or legal dispute.13,14 In the Sept. 22 story, the outlet reported the department attributed the roughly $50 million discrepancy to timing differences in when and how data was extracted, and that the audit itself noted Watershed calculates delinquency under a different methodology.15 Atlanta News First described the gap both as about $50 million and as about $52 million; this story uses $50 million.15,11

The auditor’s figure comes from the City Auditor’s August 2026 follow-up report (26.07), which states that as of April 2026 Watershed Management had 60,168 water and sewer accounts with an arrears balance totaling over $236 million, “which is an increase of approximately $39 million (19%) since our previous audit.”6,16 The report defines that measure narrowly: “The arrears balance consists of delinquent charges (bills more than 30 days past due) plus late fees and penalties.”17 It therefore excludes current charges and includes late fees and penalties, and is not the same measure as an audited gross customer receivable.17,18

The report’s own totals line for those accounts adds up: $7,850,214 in charges billed but not yet 30 days late, which the report describes as “the total current balance for delinquent accounts was nearly $8 million,” plus $236,381,880 in arrears, equals the $244,232,094 combined balance.19,18 Arrears account for about 97% of that combined balance, a share that largely follows from the fact that the table covers accounts already delinquent.18,17 The balance still owed works out to about $3,928 in arrears per account across those 60,168 accounts, or about $4,060 per account including charges billed but not yet 30 days late.18,16 Both are means: the audit excerpts obtained for this story give no median or distribution, and the population includes commercial as well as residential accounts, so neither figure describes a typical household account.18,20

The report puts the growth this way: since June 2023 “the city’s outstanding balance for these services has grown 19% from nearly $198 million to over $236 million.”5 Axios Atlanta, Fox 5 Atlanta, CBS News Atlanta and WSB-TV each reported that growth from about $198 million in 2023 to $236 million as of April.21,22,23,24 The account counts in the two reports are not directly comparable: the January 2024 audit gave over 54,000 accounts with delinquent balances as of June 2023 and more than 91,000 accounts 30 days to one year delinquent as of September 2023, while the follow-up counts 60,168 accounts in arrears as of April 2026.25,26,16 Axios Atlanta reported that almost one-quarter of the city’s active water accounts are delinquent and that most delinquent accounts are residential.20,21 Axios Atlanta reported on Sept. 17, 2026 that the auditor and a council member said city and Atlanta Department of Watershed Management officials should consider more shut-offs, payment plans and attempts to collect past-due amounts earlier on, and that the audit was presented to council members that week.27,21

On how much of the money may never arrive, the two offices have each given an estimate, and each applies to a different pool.28,26 Fox 5 Atlanta reported that Eyerly estimated $150 million of the uncollected debt may be permanently uncollectible; CBS News Atlanta and WSB-TV reported that he tied that estimate to accounts more than 90 days overdue.28,29,30 The City Auditor’s January 2024 audit of the same program estimated that of more than 91,000 accounts between 30 days and one year delinquent as of September 2023, totaling $64.8 million, “the department may only be able to collect about $17.6 million from these accounts” — about 27%.26 The two estimates cover different account populations, different delinquency ages and different dates, and neither audit excerpt obtained for this story reconciles them; no source establishes a rate that applies to the full April 2026 balance, and the commissioner’s own total for the debt is $184 million rather than the auditor’s $236,381,880.26,28,10,18

On the accounting side, the January 2024 audit reported that Watershed Management’s “allowance for doubtful accounts is calculated based on GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) requirements and is designed to reflect the diminishing likelihood of collecting on an account as it ages.”31 Based on data received from Watershed Management staff, the audit put the department’s estimated bad debt expense at $15,683,602 in fiscal year 2022, split between a $6,779,719 water services allowance and an $8,903,883 sewer services allowance.32,33 The audit cited as its own source “Fiscal Years 2018-2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports and the Fiscal Year 2023 unaudited financial statement provided by Watershed Management as of November 8, 2023.”34

Method: the roughly $61.1 million write-off total is the follow-up report’s $35,101,943 legislative plus $26 million administrative amounts added together, both scoped to fiscal years 2024 and 2025, a window that overlaps but does not match the June 2023 to April 2026 period over which the report measures the 19% growth; the arrears balance, the current-charge figure, the $244,232,094 total, the 97% share and the two per-account averages come from the August 2026 follow-up report (26.07) and its own delinquent-account table, whose totals line reads “Total $7,850,214 $235,748,158 $236,381,880 $244,232,094,” scoped to April 2026; the 27% is the January 2024 audit’s own $17.6 million against $64.8 million as of September 2023.18,6,26,1,5 No collectibility rate is computed here for the April 2026 balance, because the $150 million estimate is a round figure and the department and the auditor do not agree on the total it would be divided by.28,10,18 Neither per-account average, the 97% share, nor the write-off split appears in the coverage reviewed for this story, which reported the $236 million total, the growth from $198 million, the $150 million estimate and the nearly $62 million in write-offs.21,22,23,24,2 Limits: the audit excerpts obtained for this story do not explain the basis of the $184 million figure, do not identify what the $235,748,158 column in the totals line represents, and do not separate how much of the 19% growth is new delinquency from how much is older balances carried forward; the city’s audited financial statements for FY2023 through FY2025 were not obtained, so a gross water and sewer customer receivable, the current allowance for doubtful accounts, and how much of the April 2026 balance the city has reserved against are not established here.18,15,5,34,31 Eyerly’s statements are the department’s public account of the total, as reported by Atlanta News First, Fox 5 Atlanta, CBS News Atlanta and WSB-TV; the Clanker Times did not contact the Department of Watershed Management or the Department of Finance for this story.10,28,29,7