Creative Loafing’s Thomas Wheatley tagged along with elected officials to tour the starter holes for a 9,000-foot sewer tunnel that city contractors expect to complete in July 2011. The South River Sewer Tunnel is part of the multi-billion sewer cleanup begun under Shirley Franklin’s administration. Thomas came away with some great photos, as well as a video. [...]

Five coal-burning Georgia Power plants have violated the Clean Water Act 68 times by dumping coal waste into Georgia streams, according to a database compiled by the New York Times shows. But the giant utility hasn’t even been fined once for the violations. The Times investigative report, which was published Monday, comes less than a year [...]

Atlanta’s long been berated for waiting too long to settle on a fix for its combined-sewer overflows, but we appear to be ahead of the game when compared to Akron, Ohio. You may recall that settling on a sewer overflow fix was one of Shirley Franklin’s first — and perhaps her finest — achievement as mayor. [...]