Report: Massive DC Sewage Spill Caused by Environmental Review That Dragged on for Years

[martybegan]

From the beginning I knew there was more to this story. I work in the wastewater treatment field, and when I went to DCWASA's site, I saw that work was planned and ongoing in the area. While I don't agree that the review delay was the only cause of the failure, I can see it being a contributing factor to them having to wait years to go ahead with the full project to repair the defects.

Massive DC Sewage Spill Caused by Environmental Review That Dragged on for Years

D.C. Water asked the National Park Service for permission to fast-track repairs in 2018, after inspectors found widespread corrosion and detached rebar in one area of the six-foot-wide concrete pipe that runs under federal parkland in Maryland, records show. The utility sought to strengthen a three-quarter-mile section that included the point that later ruptured...

But the National Park Service’s environmental review dragged on for years and was still not complete when the pipe collapsed — a delay that experts said appeared to flout a 2020 federal rule requiring such examinations be done within one year...

A review by The Post of more than 2,600 public utility documents reveals how concerns about the removal of trees and vegetation, along with other environmental impacts, postponed repairs to the Potomac Interceptor. The pipe continued to degrade for more than seven years before it failed on Jan. 19 and released one of the largest spills of untreated wastewater in U.S. history.

Now there was a project going on addressing the interceptor, but I don't think it was the full project DCWASA was trying to implement. I've done preliminary work while still undergoing an impact statement, but I'm sure DCWASA couldn't do all it wanted to do because of the lack of the statement and permission from the NPS.

 

[1srelluc]

Seems more like an excuse for inactivity and a CYA so the higher-ups could keep their jobs. Seems to me that after a year went by they could have worked on it. The NPS could have requested a work stoppage in court if they really cared about it.

My guess is nobody in the DC .gov held the NPS's feet to the fire for approval even if they had any inclination to do so.

 

[martybegan]

Seems more like an excuse for inactivity and a CYA so the higher-ups could keep their jobs. Seems to me that after a year went by they could have worked on it. The NPS could have requested a work stoppage in court if they really cared about it.

My guess is nobody in the DC .gov held the NPS's feet to the fire for approval even if they had any inclination to do so.

Not doing anything is usually less risky than actually doing something.

 

[1srelluc]

Not doing anything is usually less risky than actually doing something.

Till the shit hits the river.

 

[martybegan]

Till the shit hits the river.

Yep. It's one of my complaints about any organization that spends too much of its time on other priorities like DEI, AGW crap, and diverts from their core responsibilities.

 

[1srelluc]

Yep. It's one of my complaints about any organization that spends too much of its time on other priorities like DEI, AGW crap, and diverts from their core responsibilities.

Well, it's the DC .gov....I fully expect huge amounts of fail.

My "local" news comes out of DC and it just boggles the mind how FUBAR DC has been over the years.

 

[Mushroom]

My guess is nobody in the DC .gov held the NPS's feet to the fire for approval even if they had any inclination to do so.

Great example of "Government Inaction".

One thing I learned decades ago, is that most in the government will simply do whatever paperwork is required on their end to cover their ass, and simply sit and do nothing. And then there is the issue that this is a local government having to go through the national government. That makes it even worse, as there is really little to nothing they can do about that but wait for somebody to get off their arse and actually do their jobs.

And knowing this is the DC government, that is likely exactly what happened. They knew what needed to get done, and so long as they could show they had passed the issue up to the Feds they just let it sit there. I've seen this kind of thing many times in California where a city will pass an issue to the county-state, and then it simply sits there.