Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans brought up communication issues w/ddot, esp. 4th st. (i'm sure he has heard holy hell from neighbors) Then he headed out, understandably wiped from marathon budget meetings. wasa school commenced...
Blue plains is the largest sewage treatment plant in the world They said this like 4x;) Wasa is replacing aging lines, average age is 76 yrs. 3% is pre 1850. Water system has 26,000 valves and is controlled by super fancy computer control center. GM is a very genial man so exuberant about wasa geekery. Even wore a pristine white personalized wasa work shirt, no suit for him!
Not replacing partial lead lines (private) only full lead lines. This was stopped in 2008 because it wasn't effective.
Building tunnels to alleviate combined sewer overflow - 2/3 of which currrently goes into anacostia, rest goes into Rock creek & Potomac. Now u know what the little stone huts are for...3billion gallons of sewage & trash/yr. 25yr plan= inevitable rate increase, supposedly we have low rates compared to natl average. Tunnels also to help with flooding in NE. combined sewer area is the center blob of dc.
Gm believes water is safe...but not sure about the pharmaceuticals. Filters don't remove Viagra & estrogens. Not all filters remove lead. Check q&a on dcwasa.com site & this from WASA:
Here is the fact sheet. The Washington Aqueduct, which treats the drinking water for the District, also has a working group studying issues related to pharmaceuticals.
http://www.dcwasa.com/waterquality/Pharmaceuticals%20in%20Drinking%20Water.pdf
New communication system being put into place hopefully this year called Envista - central public schedule database of ddot & ALL utility projects. (about time!)
99% +of hydrants are operational, @2% might be blocked by construction. Fire dept has been coordinated with. Fancy GIS based.
Wasa contact info@dcwasa.com
354-3600, 612-3400 emergency, public affairs 787-2200
4th st, patch is awful! A giant chunky asphalt mound. Are they going to tear up the street or the sidewalk to replace the line?
4th st: I spoke with Deirdre the construction manager who exuded capabity juju. I showed her the below pic of the crappy wasa "patch" aka impassable mound, which she will address. We lamented how DDOT chose to repave 4th st-as in the road- yesterday. DDOT has known for over a week via our bitching that wasa is going to work the road & the sidewalk, yet they STILL paved the road AFTER!!! More wasted work! really!!
Wasa is going to primarily dig the road to replace the line. They will also "mole" the sidewalk where possible. So we will end up with spots in the sidewalk & smaller ones in our front yards. Not the long asphalt hump taking up half of the sidewalk a la gas co. The work is planned to start on Monday, 6/7/10 and complete by July 30,
2010. Will work directly with wasa so they can coordinate with the residents, developers and ensure the brick gets put back properly. Anyone on 4th st please email me niello8(at)yahoo.com or ANC 6C P&Z Chair Rob Amos robamos(at)yahoo.com and we can get you in touch with the project manager.
Asked if the new envision system would help us avoid clusterflucks like this in the future, I got an emphatic YES. so...here are the pics of the crappy 4th st patch (which will be dealt with) and the fresh DDOT paving of 4th st. enjoy it for precisely 11 days!
How much consideration was given to spending that money on
greening DC green roofs , permeable surfaces etc to reduce the overflows
which are the cause of the need for the tunnels?
Somebody needs to answer this question
Posted By dan maceda / At 5/28/10 2:28 PM
DC WASA continues to explore LID for future application in Rock Creek and Potomac CSO LTCP projects. We have contributed $300,000 to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to install green-roofs in District CSO areas and provided $1,700,000 to DDOT to plant trees and install rain gardens. We also allocated $3,000,000 to install LID at our own facilities. DC WASA has assisted District government in developing necessary regulations and code revisions to enable LID retrofitting in the District.
For more information on the CSO LTCP, please visit www.dcwasa.com/workzones/projects/longtermcontrolplan.cfm.
DC Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA)
www.dcwasa.com
Posted By DC WASA / At 6/1/10 1:32 PM
USEPA and Department of Justice would not allow DC WASA to reduce Anacostia River tunnel size by implementing LID-R.
What if any reasons supported by verifiable facts were given? I checked the website but saw no mention of the permeable surface law or its' impact on runoff. I know the feds decline to participate but since it was passed in 2008 what has happened? The Mayor and Council should ask Atty General Nickles to bring suit to force USEPA and Justice to reconsider their actions. We can expect a 100 % increase in our rates to pay for this tunnel/
Posted By dan maceda / At 6/2/10 7:04 AM
