“Maybe . . . before I pass away, I can see children swimming in there,” Robert Boone, the former president of the Anacostia Watershed Society, said shortly after the settlement was reached.

But now, the three-tunnel solution is in doubt, and activists, engineers and bureaucrats are arguing once again about the best path to cleaner waters. Although digging is underway for the first tunnel, D.C. Water wants to put the other two on hold and instead see whether rain gardens, retention ponds and grass rooftops can soak up as much storm-water runoff as the pipes can store.

D.C. Water has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for permission to build an experimental “green infrastructure” project and run tests for at least eight years.

The green project would be built where the second and third tunnels were slated to run, along Rock Creek Parkway near the Kennedy Center to protect the Potomac River and in Upper Northwest neighborhoods to protect Rock Creek. A 13-mile tunnel under the Anacostia River and deep into the Northeast near a Home Depot off Rhode Island Avenue, currently under construction, would continue as planned.

The EPA is considering D.C. Water’s proposed “partnership agreement,” and a decision on whether to move forward with public hearings on the changes is expected soon.

Among local environmental activist groups, a verdict on the request is already clear: Don’t do it. Some are enraged; others have expressed dismay about the proposal.

“We’re well down the road to the tunnel solution, and I’m a little ambivalent about changing course midstream,” said Brent Bolin, a spokesman for the Anacostia Watershed Society.

Opponents say that if the green pilot project wins approval, billions of gallons of sewage would pour into the Potomac and Rock Creek for eight years while D.C. Water conducts its tests.

The proposed agreement played a major role in the recent firing of the head of the D.C. Department of the Environment (DDOE), Christophe Tulou. He said he believed the green infrastructure project had no hope of performing as well as the utility claimed, and he allowed experts in his department to say as much in comments on the project submitted to the EPA.

In a recent interview at his home, Tulou, now unemployed, said his department “had no beef about green infrastructure. But there are still issues one has to resolve . . . how effective is green infrastructure in mitigating storm-water runoff. We don’t know exactly.”

Original Link 

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Zoran Orlic of Zero Studio Photography/Uncommon Ground

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courtesy of John Taylor

EPA Announces ‘Clean Rivers, Green District Partnership’ With District of Columbia and DC Water

Release Date: 12/14/2012
Contact Information: David Sternberg, 215-814-5548 sternberg.david@epa.gov

(PHILADELPHIA – Dec. 14, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the District of Columbia, and D.C. Water have joined in a partnership agreement to use green techniques for wet weather pollution control in the District. The “Clean Rivers, Green District” agreement outlines the collaborative steps to support green infrastructure to achieve sustainable stormwater management, more livable communities, and other environmental improvements in the District. 

“This agreement demonstrates the parties’ commitment to green infrastructure and establishes a framework for intergovernmental collaboration moving forward,” said EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “The Clean Rivers, Green District Partnership aims to prevent pollution from coming in contact with rainwater in the first place, while also providing public health, livability, and economic benefits for the District and its residents.”

D.C. Water has proposed expanding its commitment to the use of green infrastructure as a supplement to its investments in a series of tunnels for the control of combined sewer overflows in the District. The Clean Rivers, Green District Partnership agreement outlines the cooperative steps that EPA and the District will take in support of a green infrastructure demonstration project proposed by D.C. Water, and how it will relate to the existing federal consent decree commitments for controlling combined sewer overflows.

“This partnership agreement reinforces our unwavering commitment to being responsible stewards of the environment,” says Mayor Vincent C. Gray. “We are charting an innovative and responsible course that creates new job opportunities while also protecting the health of our rivers and residents alike. The District is already at the forefront of the sustainability movement — we already lead the nation in municipal use of green power, LEED-certified buildings, and many other measures, including green roof installation and other stormwater management practices. This project moves us closer to achieving the ambitious goals in my Sustainable DC vision.”

“As the leading local authority on the environment, the District Department of the Environment is already moving forward on significant green infrastructure projects, such as our RiverSmart Homes initiative,” says DDOE’s interim Director Keith A. Anderson. “This partnership will allow us to greatly expand on our already innovative practices and we look forward to working with D.C. Water and EPA to ensure that we move closer to achieving Mayor Gray’s goal of making our waterways cleaner and healthier.”

“This could be the best opportunity to improve the District’s environment in a generation,” said D.C. Water General Manager George S. Hawkins. “I applaud our partners in the federal and District governments for joining us to explore the possibility of a greener future.”

Under the 2005 consent decree, D.C. Water was permitted to evaluate more decentralized, green techniques as an alternate, or a supplement to structural controls in the Rock Creek and Potomac River drainage areas of the District. D.C. Water’s proposed demonstration project consists of the design and construction of a number of large-scale, multi-million dollar green infrastructure projects in the Potomac and Rock Creek watersheds. 

These projects will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of green infrastructure to retain and control rainwater using techniques that mimic natural control measures to meet water quality goals. If successful, these techniques could be used to help address the combined sewer overflow problems in the District.

The agreement also commits the parties to work together to implement a Green Design Challenge to engage private sector participation in demonstrating and advancing green infrastructure technology in an urban setting. The agreement also seeks to enlist participation by public and private organizations in a collaborative effort to develop next generation green infrastructure designs, and facilitate participation by academic institutions in various aspects of the project.