OPINION:
The District of Columbia has been pumping hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. This ongoing ecological disaster won’t be fully resolved for at least another month because the city that wants to be a state is unable to manage its infrastructure.
A sewer pipe installed in the 1960s collapsed from neglect on Jan. 19, unleashing a torrent of filth into the river where the Clara Barton Parkway meets Interstate 495. According to DC Water, it will take four to six weeks to bypass the damage.
The rapidly disintegrating conduit slings around 60 million gallons of muck each day, so it’s important to keep it in good shape. Instead of shoring up the crumbling structures under their care, DC Water officials turned to other priorities, such as constructing a gleaming new headquarters for themselves in 2019.
“DC Water takes a giant step for civic architecture everywhere, proving that a utility building can be as contextual, evocative, and visually riveting as any other piece of architecture,” the architectural firm behind the $76 million project explains on its website.
No expense was spared in achieving the bureaucracy’s vision of a modernist masterpiece. “Intended to evoke the fluidity of water, the building’s sinuous form ebbs and flows. The design decision is not just aesthetic as the shape represents a pragmatic response to the unique constraints of the site, a narrow wedge of land in the floodplain of the Anacostia River.”
If only such attention to detail were devoted to things that actually matter. Initial efforts to replace the sewer started early last year, too late to fend off this foul mishap.
The rupture sent E. coli bacteria measurements into the extreme hazard zone. Volunteers with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network and the University of Maryland measured deadly pathogens at levels 2,700 times beyond what is considered safe.
“At a time when faith in our leaders is dishearteningly low, the wholly insufficient response by the D.C. government at all levels only adds to that loss of faith. Our conscience should be shocked when we remember that what is at risk here is public health — for millions of area residents,” Betsy Nicholas, the group’s president, said in a statement last week.
DC Water downplays the findings, pointing to its own carefully curated sampling to claim everything is fine. Likewise, self-appointed stewards of the environment are eerily silent. Outfits that waste no time condemning oil companies whenever an excess drop of crude makes its way into the ocean have yet to weigh in on this man-made catastrophe.
Meanwhile, the city has closed a stretch of 14th Street near Thomas Circle in Northwest for the remainder of the week because the abandoned sewer tunnel below is on the verge of imploding. City bosses assure residents that, despite the nasty smell, everything is under control.
Making repairs to ancient structures that nobody will ever see is difficult and underappreciated work. Serious leaders ensure appropriate resources are allocated to such projects despite a lack of public interest.
Courtesy of one-party rule in the District, managers in charge of DC Water are free to prefer left-wing virtue signaling to competence. “At DC Water, we just don’t ‘do’ diversity. Our mission is to reflect diversity and inclusion in all aspects of how the Authority conducts its business,” the organization’s website proclaims.
The result is a city surrounded by the stench of failure.
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