The dispute between the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority and the D.C. Fire Department over which agency would inspect the District’s aging fire hydrants remained unresolved this week as the two sides couldn’t agree on who would pay for the project.
In the hour-long, closed-door meeting, D.C. Water and Sewer Authority officials rejected the fire department proposal to have the firefighters inspect the District’s more than 9,000 hydrants twice a year to prevent response delays that could have catastrophic consequences, especially in the event of a terrorist attack. But the department wants WASA to pay for the equipment and manpower.
D.C. fire department spokesman Alan Etter said he doesn’t know who will inspect the fire hydrants, but someone has to do it.
“I’m not going to say it’s not going to get done,” Etter said, “but I don’t know what’s going to happen at this point.”
WASA spokeswoman Michele Quander-Collins said the next round of inspections are not due until May. Officials were still trying to hash out what the program would look like, the frequency of the inspections and the costs, she said.
“There is still time,” Quander-Collins said. The two sides will try to meet again in the next couple of weeks, she said.
The fire department this week wrapped up a five-month inspection that found as many as 11 percent of the hydrants did not work. It was part of the first citywide inspection in more than seven years. D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin stepped up the inspections after two hydrants failed during the April fire that destroyed the historic Georgetown library.
Each day since then, six crews of four firefighters have driven thecity streets, testing the lines and reporting the malfunctions to WASA.
Quander-Collins said that the agency is working on a list of 57 hydrants that need to be repaired.
