In a city like D.C., where century-old pipes and antiquated fire hydrants are still in daily use, major investments in water and sewer infrastructure upgrades are a basic public health necessity. That is why the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) has proposed an 8.5 percent rate increase to pay for a 10-year, $3.1 billion capital improvement plan that will add about $4.24 per month to the average residential water bill starting in October. The money will pay for major improvements to a water and sewer system that currently serves about 2 million people in the metropolitan area.
An additional $640 million will come from a new runoff fee paid by property owners — including the federal government — to cover the cost of treating storm water that cannot be absorbed by impervious surfaces like roads, driveways, patios and parking lots.
Nobody likes a rate increase, but WASA has been one of the District’s most responsible stewards of public funds, adopting a customer-first approach that other departments would do well to emulate.
Faced with literally decades of neglect, General Manager Jerry Johnson has streamlined and modernized the agency, replaced more than half of the estimated 35,000 public lead service pipes, created a Rate Stabilization Fund, and invested more than $900 million in Blue Plains — the largest single advanced wastewater treatment plant in the world.
However, about a third of the District is served by pre-Civil War sewer pipes that mix storm water with wastewater. During heavy rainfalls, even Blue Plains — which processes 330 million gallons a day — can’t handle the volume, so untreated sewage is discharged into the Anacostia and Potomac rivers.
Under the terms of a 2005 agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency, WASA has reduced overflows of untreated sewage by 30 percent, but needs to spend $2.1 billion more to build a 12-mile network of underground, Metro-size temporary retention tunnels that will eliminate 96 percent of the discharge within the next 20 years.
That’s admittedly a lot of money, but Johnson says it would cost about twice as much to replace the sewer pipes.
The advantages of keeping raw sewage out of the river in the first place, as opposed to trying to clean up contaminated waterways after the fact, are obvious. So are the economic, recreational and health benefits District residents will enjoy when the Anacostia River is finally restored to its former glory. This rate increase is justified.
