The West Virginia Avenue Wetland is gone - or is it?

For years, there has been a leak of some sort coming up through the sidewalk on West Virginia Avenue NE, just north of the intersection with Fenwick Street, in front of property used by the DC Department of Public Works.

This is what it looked like for a long time:

The "West Virginia Avenue Wetland"

Water constantly flowed down the sidewalk. The water had been sitting for so long that cattails and other aquatic plants had colonized the walkway. As you can see in the photo above, the city's solution was to throw a few cones in the pond and call it a day.

I complained about this regularly on Twitter, mostly to DC Water, assuming this was their problem. They tested the water, though, and asserted that it was not coming from one of their pipes.

I figured this wasn't possible. The water had to be coming from a municipally-owned source, and DC Water controls all of that in the city. But, they're the experts!

The morning I took the photo above, I included the mayor's Twitter handle in my semi-regular complaint. Surprisingly, I received a direct message shortly after letting me know that the executive's office would be getting to the bottom of this issue quickly. I guess you just have to get your timing right, sometimes!

After a few days, crews were there digging up the area around the leak. Jaime asked the workers if they had found anything, but they treated it like a state secret and wouldn't talk.

Construction crews dig to find the source of the leak.

Finally, a few days later, this email arrived from Matt Desjardins, who works in the mayor's office:

Hello – Mayor Gray asked me to follow up with you regarding some standing water on the sidewalk near a DPW facility in NE. I know that this has been an issue you have been looking to resolve for some time now and I apologize if any of the below information is redundant. 

Here is what we currently know. DPW is working with its partner agencies to address the issue: 

· DPW has hired a contractor to address the flooding of the sidewalk at 1725 West Virginia Avenue, NE (Fleet campus). The contractor uncovered an abandoned storm water drain that originates at a manhole and dead ends into multi chambered structure under the sidewalk. When it rains, all of the runoff water backs up in the manhole and bubbles up onto the sidewalk and street on West Virginia Avenue, NE. There is no access for the runoff into the sewer system. 

· The current DC Water regulations require that there be either an oil/water separator or a storm water management system on the property. Neither system is in place for this section of the campus. 

· One possible solution is to have DC Water build a storm water management system as it builds the new parking lot. DC Water needs to use the Fleet campus to construct a 110 foot shaft to address the Bloomingdale flooding issue. DC Water will construct a new parking lot for DPW to replace the parking lot where the shaft will be used for the tunnel. 

· Unfortunately, a solution may be a few months away.

The upshot is this: there's a drainage system under the sidewalk that apparently does not connect to the regular storm sewer system. It could get "fixed" when DC Water works on the tunnel that will ultimately divert storm water from Bloomingdale.

Isn't infrastructure fun?

After construction to cap the abandoned storm drain.

Epilogue: Where does your (DC) Water come from?

Last month, we covered a blogger roundtable with DC Water, discussing about a wide range of issues related to the DC utility that supplies our drinking water and treats the sewage of DC and surrounding municipalities.

Our website reported on an interesting map that showed the location of reservoirs in the city, and how each one serves areas at a common elevation, regardless of the reservoir's proximity. Unfortunately, the map had to be redacted due to "security concerns" regarding the ability to glean information regarding the water system from the map.

Interestingly enough, the Washington Post ran an article ten days ago regarding a broken water main in Montgomery County. That article included a link (PDF) to a map that shows the water main network for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) in Prince Georges and Montgomery counties.

To the best of our knowledge, no one has requested that map be redacted, since it has been online longer and hosted on a website that gets viewed my many more people than the DC map we posted. Perhaps it's because the map is not very sharp, thus making it difficult to ascertain the location of information depicted on the map.

That nice map—nevermind

Well, in the "security" obsessed reality we live in, having something as simple as a not-very-high-resolution map of water pipes out there on the Internet is enough to make government-types wet their pants (water related puns—gotta love 'em!).

This morning, I received notice from Alan Heymann, the Public Affairs Director of DC Water, that the EPA contacted DC Water to let them know they believe the map is "sensitive information" and should not have been shared. Now, I'm not naive, and I understand the need for vigilance regarding threats to infrastructure in the nation's capital, but it seems to me that this kind of information doesn't add much value for someone looking to do harm to our water supply. The easiest places to do so, the open-air reservoirs at Dalecarlia, Georgetown, and McMillan are all well-guarded. Just try to take a photo at any of them, and a gruff person will threaten you with physical harm if you look in their direction for too long.

One of my mantras is "information wants to be free," so my initial response was to say, "Hell no, this is public property, and the public has a right to know about this." According to Flickr statistics, nearly 1200 people have taken the time to click on the largest version of the map, so the bird has flown the coop, so to speak, and the data is out there in the wild now.

But, Mr. Heymann has been a great help in solving the problem of 'Montello Springs' as well as offering the tour of the Bryant Street Pumping Station, so we've decided on a compromise. The highest resolution version of the map has been removed from Flickr, and we're including an annotated version below that shows the location of the reservoirs. 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 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 (http://dirt.asla.org/2009/09/08/government-2-0-epas-myenvironment/). 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.

Where does your DC Water come from?

On Thursday, June 17th, I was invited (along with other local bloggers) to a roundtable with the General Manager of DC Water, George S. Hawkins.

Mr. Hawkins spoke about the culture of accountability that is being nurtured at DC Water (formerly known as the DC Water and Sewer Authority / DC WASA), discussed the ongoing lead-in-the-water saga, and spoke at length about his interest and excitement regarding all things environmental (he was formerly the head of the District Department of the Environment). Other bloggers have covered many of these points well, so there's no need for me to rehash them here (though I do know that a Greater Greater Washington post which will touch on a few other points is currently being worked on, and I will add a link to it when it's ready).

I'd like to take the time to share with you one of the fascinating things that we learned during our tour of the Bryant Street Pumping Station. If you read the information at that link, you can learn about the seven service areas that provide water to the residents and businesses of the city.

Briefly, all the water we use comes from the Potomac River near Great Falls, is treated at the Dalecarlia Reservoir by the Washington Aqueduct (a division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), and is then sold to DC Water. That water is then pumped to reservoirs all over the city. The reservoirs are located at different elevations, and they supply water to points below them. From those reservoirs, the water flows downhill (via gravity) to houses and businesses.

Check out this great map:

(Click on the map to view larger.)

The legend at the bottom of the map shows the color-coding which indicates the approximate elevation of different parts of the city. As you can see, blue water mains run along roads at the lowest elevations (between zero and 70 feet above sea level). Red water mains are located at the second elevation range (between 70 and 140 feet), green at the third range, orange at the fourth, and brown at the highest elevations. The red and green areas east of the Anacostia River are separate zones than those west of the river, while the lowest zone (blue) spans both sides of the river.

What fascinated me the most was the fact that this means that the reservoir that serves your house isn't necessarily the one closest to your house, or even in your quadrant of the city! For example, our house is in Trinidad. While the closest reservoir is at Brentwood Parkway and New York Avenue (just north of Gallaudet University), we are served by reservoirs in Berkley and at the Armed Forces Retirement Home, both across town in the Northwest quadrant of the city. The reservoir nearest our house serves locations at the lowest elevations (below 70 feet), from lower Georgetown and Southwest in the west all the way to Rosedale and Deanwood in the east.

Some other examples of reservoirs and the neighborhods they serve:

• The reservoir at Van Ness and 44th NW serves neighborhoods at intermediate elevations across the city like Brookland, Woodridge, and Michigan Park in Northeast; Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Adams Morgan, and Kalorama in the center of the city; and Foxhall and the Palisades in Northwest.
• Two of the reservoirs at Fort Reno serve higher elevations like Glover Park, Cleveland Park, American University Park, and Forest Hills west of Rock Creek Park; and Petworth, North Portal Estates, Manor Park, and Takoma east of Rock Creek Park.
• The highest reservoir at Fort Reno serves the highest elevations in the city—neighborhoods like Tenleytown, Chevy Chase, and Shepherd Park.

Neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River have had a persistent problem with lower water pressure. DC Water is looking to rectify that with the construction of the new reservoir and pumping station in Ward 8. The construction of the new Department of Homeland Security headquarters on the campus of Saint Elizabeths will greatly increase demand for water in that part of town, and Mr. Hawkins said it would be a win-win for the neighborhood and DHS to get the new reservoir built as part of the new construction there.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.