Posts about Water

At the head of the river in Maryland, over a dozen crew teams from the region call Bladensburg Waterfront Park home, including University of Maryland, Catholic University, Elizabeth Seton High School, DeMatha Catholic High School, and Walter Johnson High School. You can even learn to row with the Washington Rowing School, rent a canoe or paddle boat from Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation, or take a guided river tour with AWS.

This park is also the gateway to the Anacostia Tributary Trail System, a biker's paradise of trails stretching up to Greenbelt and Wheaton that within 2 years will connect southward along the river to the existing Anacostia Riverwalk Trail in the District.

The Anacostia River has a rich history of recreational use. Eastern Power Boat Club, founded in 1905, is the country's first power boat club, and Seafarer's Yacht Club, founded in 1945, is the oldest African-American yacht club on the east coast. Seafarer's has a long commitment to community service and the health of the river, starting the annual Anacostia River clean up that has grown into a major annual Earth Day event, and AWS is a proud partner.

Other members of the Historic Anacostia Boating Association are also along Boathouse Row (Water and M Streets SE), including District Yacht Club and Washington Yacht Club, as well as the Anacostia Community Boathouse, a home for rowers and recreational paddlers.

AWS is a founding member of the Anacostia Community Boathouse Association, and with ACBA's excellent new facilities at 1900 M Street SE, AWS has begun to increase our recreational paddling programs. In 2011, AWS "Paddle Nights" attracted several dozen people down to the river every 2 weeks and opened their eyes to the possibilities of a clean, healthy Anacostia River.

If you don't know about something, it is hard to care about it. In short, recreation equals stewardship, and we believe that more citizens should come to know and love the Anacostia River.

In light of AWS activities to clean up the river, we are often asked if it is safe to recreate on the Anacostia River. The answer is yes, if you are sensible about it. Don't swim, don't drink the water, and be careful about eating the fish. But please walk, bike, row, paddle, or simply look at and enjoy the river.

In order to share this information more widely, AWS and ACBA are hosting a River Health and Public Recreation Forum this Saturday, February 11, 9-11 am, at the First District Police Station, 101 M Street SW.

Councilmember Tommy Wells, Dr. Janet Phoenix of the DC Environmental Health Collaborative, Dr. Sacoby Wilson of the University of Maryland, Collin Burrell of the District Department of Environment, and Donal Barron of DC Water will give a brief panel presentation, followed by an audience Q&A. Topics will range from recreational safety to the risks posed by the river's various pollution sources, including bacteria, stormwater, toxics, and trash.

Although we've still got a ways to go to reach our goal of a swimmable and fishable Anacostia River, it is already a community asset for those who know its charms. Come down to the river and learn for yourself what many locals already know: the Anacostia is an urban oasis, and could yet be a better one if we have the willpower to make it happen. This well-kept secret is really a hidden gem.

The event was sponsored by Friends of Rock Creek's Environment (FORCE), a 6-year-old nonprofit that works to protect water quality in the Rock Creek watershed (area in which all rain that falls flows into Rock Creek and its tributaries), which covers much of the District and Montgomery County and is part of the greater Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Along with coordinating hands-on cleaning and maintenance of the creek and its surroundings, including the removal of invasive plant species, FORCE works in the political arena for policies to curb the less visible forms of water pollution caused by a variety of human activities, and encourage "river smart" home and landscape designs that minimize stormwater runoff.

FORCE is one of several water quality protection organizations serving greater Washington. Others are the Anacostia Watershed Society, Potomac Riverkeeper, Friends of Sligo Creek, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. All are deserving of your support, as polluted local waters come back to bite us in many ways.

DC Water collects the IAC to pay for its Clean Rivers Project. This project aims to clean up pollution in the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Rock Creek. Approximately 2/3 of water runoff ends up in the Anacostia.

In the proposed budget, the IAC would increase from $3.45 to $6.87 per month, almost a 100% increase.

Other increases in DC Water rates included a retail rate increase from $46.09 to $48.84, DC PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) increase from $3.28 to $3.55, and DC Right of Way fee increase from $0.94 to $1.00. The total monthly increase would be $60.29 to $66.79, based on an average monthly consumption of 5,004 gallons of water.

Hawkins said DC Water originally intended to bundle the IAC with the retail rate for water. The fee would then depend on the water usage of a property. DC Water instead assesses the fee on all properties with impervious surfaces. This way, the fee captures properties with impervious surfaces but little to no water use (e.g. parking lots).

The IAC was a flat fee for all customers until October 1, 2010. DC Water changed the structure and created six tiers of properties, based on the amount of impervious surface on a given lot. Thus a person living in a rowhouse would pay less than the owner of a parking lot.

DC Water also collects an IAC for the District Department of the Environment (DDOE) for its own stormwater management program. One resident asked why DC Water does not call the IAC a tax. Others argued that because of water conservation systems on their property, the IAC is unfair.

Hawkins argued that the IAC is a fee, not a tax, because it is collected for a sole purpose: funding the Clean Rivers Project. For this reason, the fee also applies to the federal government, which owns a significant amount of property with impervious surfaces in the District. See this earlier post about that very issue.

Hawkins further explained that water conservation efforts would not lower the costs of the Clean River Project, so there is little incentive to offer rate deals to customers. DDOE, however, will offer incentives for conservation, thereby lowering its portion of the IAC. Hawkins indicated these incentives would be in place soon.

Though the IAC does apply to the federal government, it does not apply to District roads. Hawkins said this arrangement was part of the original decision to implement the fee. He indicated it would be difficult to now apply the fee to the city.

Hawkins highlighted some of DC Water's other capital improvement projects. The authority is replacing water mains and separating storm runoff from sewage lines.

He also said DC Water has mapped all fire hydrants in the city using GIS mapping. This allows DC Fire & EMS to monitor hydrants and find the necessary water pressure during emergencies. Low water pressure was a major factor in the fire that destroyed the Cafritz mansion in July 2009.

Lastly, Hawkins addressed questions about lead levels in the District's drinking water. He said lead levels are lower than or at federally mandated levels of 15 parts per billion. He suggested galvanized pipes, solder, or lead fixtures could increase lead levels. Residents can ask to have their water tested if they suspect higher levels of lead.

The forum was the first in a series of public meeting DC Water will hold throughout March and April, with one in each ward. They will hold a final public hearing on May 11th. Residents can submit written testimony if they cannot attend.

Underground storage tunnels will cost $2.2 billion. To recoup this cost, DC Water started levying a fee on all impervious surfaces on customers' properties, regardless of whether the property is located in a combined sewer area.

Impervious surfaces, such as a house's footprint or a driveway, prevent the ground from absorbing rainwater and slowly releasing it through local springs. Instead, water runs off our roofs, into gutters, down the downspouts, onto a sidewalk or driveway, into the street and then into the sewer. Consequently, storm drains on the street aren't just handling street water, they're also handling the water our homes, offices, parking lots, and driveways dump on the streets.

DC Water is working with the DC Department of the Environment to discount the fee for properties that mitigate their runoff. Until then, we're all paying for our runoff and the tunnels that must contain it.

But is it a fee based on usage, like your water bill, or is it a tax, like a property tax? As you learned in your civics class, no state, and certainly not the District, may tax the Federal Government. The Feds will pay for services provided, such as water and electricity, but they will not pay property and other taxes.

Since this fee is structured to approximate your burden on the sewer system, it shouldn't count as a tax. The Obama administration at first disagreed, arguing it was a tax and that the federal government should not pay.

Most ironically, DC Water's tunnels are being built to comply with the federally-mandated Clean Water Act. In essence, the federal government contributes to the problem, mandates a solution, but refuses to pay for it. This is worse than an unfunded mandate because federal government properties are partly responsible for the problem in the first place.

Without the federal government paying its share, which accounts for 20% of impervious area in DC, water bills for DC residents would soar to compensate for the Feds' "principled" delinquency. One can imagine residents demanding DC Water shut off the water to all government properties; it's hard to stand on principle if it means sitting in a porta-potty.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) are more diplomatic. They are sponsoring legislation to require the Federal Government to pay.

Fortunately, after a second look, and probably after some hard lobbying, the Government Accountability Office reversed its earlier decision. In a recent letter DC Water provided us, GAO states, "We have concluded that the [Impervious Surface Area] charge is a component of the utility rate customers pay for water and sewer services." That is, the impervious area charge is an integral part of financing a sewer system, that by law must comply with national water quality standards.

You can still get the basic gist of our previous article from this map—that different sections and elevations of the city are fed from reservoirs that aren't necessarily the closest to that part of the city. That information is also still readily available in text form on DC Water's website.

In thinking about all of this, Jaime discovered the EPA website called MyEnvironment, where they tout "transparency, transparency, transparency" and openness, and discuss the sharing of maps and data with the public. In light of the recommendation to remove this map, we asked Alan Heymann if he feels that sites like "MyEnvironment" can ever truly meet the goal of openness? Should government agencies set explicit limits on what is appropriate to share? Here's his response:

I agree that generally, more information is better than less information. Many District residents don't know much about the facilities and the agency that supply their drinking water, which was the idea behind the bloggers' roundtable that you attended last week. Likewise, not everyone gets a chance to visit the inside of a pumping station, but you have the ability to take your audience there through your photos and words.

The General Manager and the rest of the team were pleased to see your informative, thoughtful take on the distribution system on Tuesday. At the same time, especially because this is the nation's capital, we need to be mindful of security concerns. When the U.S. EPA mentioned to us that the posting of a detailed map online might put sensitive information into the wrong hands, I made the request that the map be removed from your post.

As you mentioned in the earlier post, our new name and logo are just part of an effort to connect with our customers in ways this agency has never done before. However, in hindsight, I probably erred a little too far on the side of openness and transparency in providing a high-resolution map of the distribution system for the web. I appreciate greatly your cooperation in agreeing to take it down, and I want to thank the GGW readers for their understanding as well. I'm looking forward to collaborating with you on future posts.

Cross-posted at The District Curmudgeon.