Piedmont Atlanta Hospital uses system to protect its campus from major water main breaks

ATLANTA — Inside the brick-red building along Collier Road in Buckhead, it’s so noisy you can barely hear yourself think.

But for Josh Roberts, it provides peace of mind.

“It helps me sleep at night. A lot,” Roberts said.

He’s the Chief Operating Officer of Piedmont Atlanta Hospital.

The noise is coming from what the hospital calls its WaterHub.

It is made up of 6,000 square feet of pipes, tanks, gauges, and grates. It’s a state-of-the-art system that takes the Piedmont Campus’ dirty and smelly wastewater and makes it clean and clear.

It’s used to power the hospital’s heating and cooling systems and medical equipment.

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It also protects the operation from emergencies like last weekend’s major water main break.

What some now call the “Midtown Geyser” did not affect Piedmont Atlanta up in Buckhead.

But if it had, administrators say WaterHub would have prevented any impact to the hospital.

The water is not used for drinking, but engineer Trip Reiter said it’s pure enough to, and he gulped some down while Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen visited on Friday.

Roberts said the goal is to guarantee patient care no matter what may happen to any of the city’s water pipes.

“The city is doing the best they can to repair it. But we made this investment to make sure we are able to sleep at night and take care of our patients every day,” Roberts said.

Over the last year, Piedmont Atlanta’s WaterHub recycled 75 million gallons of water.

RELATED NEWS:

West Peachtree Street open again after water main break causes after multi-day closure In response to a large water main break on West Peachtree Street and 11th Street on June 1, a portion of West Peachtree St. was closed to traffic for repairs. I

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