As far as municipal services are concerned, it doesn’t get more basic than clean water and sanitary waste disposal, without which urban life is impossible. In local government, those tasks are handled by the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. WASA was founded in 1996 as an independent agency under the direct control of the Environmental Protection Agency. In recent years, WASA has steadily improved its delivery of essential services, while demonstrating a high degree of fiscal responsibility.
It was not always so. WASA General Manager Jerry Johnson found the bankrupt agency in chaos when he arrived in June 1997. EPA was on the verge of taking it over. Under the D.C. government control board, there had been no new investment or maintenance of the city’s antiquated water and sewer lines for more than a decade. There were no viable financial, personnel, IT or procurement systems in place when he arrived either. All in all, it was a mess.
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Because of the city’s then-junk bond status, WASA couldn’t even borrow money locally; Johnson, the former deputy city manager of Richmond, Va., somehow convinced a Cleveland bank to give him a $20 million line of credit to turn things around, although Congress wisely insisted on a “steel curtain” between WASA’s finances and the city’s to prevent funds from being siphoned off.
Turning this sinking ship around was neither easy nor painless. WASA’S 11-member board agreed to increase water rates by 42 percent, and adopted the principle that everybody — no exceptions — had to pay their water bill. In turn, Johnson reduced his budget by $40 million and fired 300 employees before embarking on an ambitious campaign to repair or replace all the city’s antiquated water mains, meters, valves and hydrants. That campaign is now almost finished. Updated technology notifies customers of unusually high consumption and allows them to pay bills or schedule work online.
Ten years later, WASA has an AA bond rating, $140 million in the bank and a $58 million rate stabilization fund to prevent sudden price shocks. But WASA gets more recognition internationallythan it does in its own hometown. Its Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant, the largest in the world, treats sewage from local jurisdictions as far away as Leesburg. It was also the recipient of the EPA’s top award last year and the site of 11 major national research projects, two licenses and one patent.
In other words, WASA is a true D.C. success story — one that should inspire city officials currently trying to transform their own dysfunctional agencies. That’s also why city residents should support WASA’s plan to raise $2.2 billion in needed capital without incurring debt. Residential water bills next year would increase about 7.5 percent, or $3.42 per month — about the price of a coffee at Starbucks — to guarantee clean water for decades to come and to write another chapter in a good-news story.
