Task Force Urges Deferment of DC Water Projects

Concern from Georgetown businesses, residents and neighborhood civic associations over DC Water’s extensive proposed projects across the neighborhood may bring to bear Section 106, the law giving the Commission of Fine Arts’ Old Georgetown Board final approval of all construction in the historic district.

In effect, this would pit one federal agency against another, the Environmental Protection Agency, which is instigating DC Water’s green infrastructure projects.

In order to fulfill a major consent order from the EPA, DC Water has proposed a number of projects across the District to address its aged combined-sewer system (built before there were requirements to separate storm water runoff from sewage) and reduce the overflow of raw sewage into the Potomac River, the Anacostia River and Rock Creek during
heavy rainfalls.

For Georgetown, a massive tunnel from the waterfront to a water processing plant in Anacostia was originally proposed. After objections to the proposal by Georgetown civic groups, the major consent order was changed and a less disruptive tunnel was announced, along with significant green infrastructure projects to lessen the runoff.

These green infrastructure projects include installing pervious pavement in alleys, building storage reservoirs underneath parking lanes, installing pervious pavers at intersections and diverting storm water from the sewer system into rain barrels installed on private and public buildings for temporary water storage.

At a Feb. 29 meeting, a task force of Advisory Neighborhood Commission members and representatives from the Citizens Association of Georgetown, the Georgetown Business Improvement District and the Georgetown Business Association met with DC Water officials to provide comments and recommendations on its proposals, according to an article by Walter Groszyk in CAG’s Georgetown Citizens newsletter.

Also discussed was the applicability of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which the CFA maintains applies to any proposed green infrastructure in Georgetown. The section requires federal agencies to assess the effects of federal actions on historic properties.

Because the projects proposed for Georgetown, a National Historic Landmark historic district, would be so disruptive its historic character, including extensive excavation of Georgetown’s public ways and, potentially, archaeological surveys and investigations prior to excavation, the task force recommended that DC Water’s projects be moved north of Georgetown or deferred altogether.