The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will spend $96 million to build a new processing facility in Northwest that should put an end to the periodic, massive discharge of sludge into the Potomac River.
The 68,559-square-foot residuals-processing facility, slated for 7.4 acres off Little Falls Road near the Dalecarlia Reservoir, immediately north of Sibley Memorial Hospital, should allow the Washington Aqueduct to meet a Clean Water Act permit restricting the expulsion of sediment and aluminum sulfate into the river.
The project is being undertaken by the Corps of Engineers, the group that manages the aqueduct.
“Should we be using our rivers as sewers?” asked Ed Merrifield, executive director of Potomac Riverkeeper. “The answer is no. From my perspective, it’s a good thing that the stuff isn’t going back into the river.”
Preliminary designs and site plans for the facilities were approved last week by the National CapitalPlanning Commission.
The aqueduct provides drinking water to more than 1 million people in the District and Northern Virginia.
The current process involves drawing water from the Potomac, removing solid particles, treating the water and then sending the remnant sludge back into the river — roughly 200,000 tons per year.
But under a pollutant discharge permit issued in 2003 by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Corps was essentially ordered to stop returning the residuals to the river.
More than 160 alternatives were considered, including piping the sludge away, before the final option was chosen.
The processing facility will allow the “residuals” from Dalecarlia and the Georgetown Reservoir to be collected, thickened and dewatered prior to being loaded onto trucks, perhaps as many as 25 a day, and delivered to disposal sites.
During the public comment process, neighbors of the Dalecarlia Reservoir in both the District and Montgomery County expressed concern about truck noise, lighting, appearance, smell and the repercussions on homeowners’ views.
Those concerns remain, said Debra Graham of Bethesda, who represents the Westmoreland Citizens Association on a community group formed to deal with the issue.
“We’ll continue to try to work with the Corps and monitor what they’re doing,” Graham said. “I think, now that the plans have been approved, the community just has to wait and hope for the best.”
Final designs are slated for July 2007. Construction should be completed by 2010.
