The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, referred to as DC Water, studies “development” in efforts to control a big spill from a collapsed segment of the Potomac Interceptor—a sanitary sewer line that runs along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. and its Maryland suburbs.
A Jan. 19 rupture of the 72-in-dia. pipeline, the reason for which has no longer been publicly disclosed, despatched an estimated 300 million gallons of untreated wastewater spilling into the river ahead of being introduced beneath keep an eye on with a brief bypass machine past due ultimate week.
DC Water didn’t reply to ENR’s requests for details about the scope, timing or value of the cleanup and maintenance, or the contractors concerned within the containment effort—however studies say the hassle may just value as much as $10 million.
Built within the Nineteen Sixties, the 54-mile Potomac Interceptor carries as much as 60 million gallons of wastewater day-to-day from Washington, D.C.’s Maryland and Virginia suburbs to the Blue Plains wastewater plant within the town, for remedy (see map beneath).
DC Water says the smash came about about one-quarter-mile from the place DC-based Citadel Meyer Development Corp. has been at paintings since ultimate fall on an eight-month, $9.6-million challenge to rehabilitate an 800-ft phase of the 16-ft-deep interceptor the usage of sliplining strategies. That challenge is a part of DC Water’s decade-long rehabilitation program, estimated to price $625 million.
Rupture of 72-in. sewer pipe alongside the Potomac River north of Washington, D.C. on Jan. 19 led to huge wastewater spill that has bben contained, however cleanup and pipe restore may well be $10-million effort.
Map: DC Water
With the cave in sending an estimated 40 million gallons of sewage consistent with day gushing into the river, DC Water says on its web page that its contractors labored with the Nationwide Park Carrier to reroute the majority of the Potomac Interceptor go with the flow across the leak thru a dry, remoted segment of the historical Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, situated 125 toes away. As many as 8 huge pumps are getting used to channel the sewage about 2,700 toes downstream, the place it’s then directed again into the interceptor, the company says. Some present go with the flow is safely transferring throughout the cave in web site throughout the sewer line, in line with DC Water.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers-operated Washington Aqueduct, which gives ingesting water to the town and portions of Northern Virginia, is unaffected by way of the incident, for the reason that number one Potomac River consumption level for that machine is situated upstream from the rupture web site. However the Corps closed a downstream consumption facility as a precaution.
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Ten days following preliminary discovery of the sewage leak, DC Water reported that overflows from the breach seem to have ended, despite the fact that keeping up 24/7 operation of the pumps has been sophisticated by way of the world’s protracted stretch of sub-freezing climate.
The company’s center of attention now could be on stabilizing excavations across the cave in web site and clearing particles and obstructions from within the pipe. Trench packing containers had been put in across the broken segment for containment and to forestall additional erosion. As soon as truck-mounted commercial vacuums transparent particles, and wastewater ranges across the cave in lower, the company says groups will be capable to extra totally assess the wear and tear and decide a restore technique.
One restore chance into account is to make use of a 50-ft segment of 72-in pipe from some other lately finished challenge.
Additionally but to be made up our minds are the spill’s environmental results and doable remediation wishes, an effort that DC Water says is being coordinated with federal, state and native companions. In keeping with the Potomac Riverkeeper Community, water high quality assessments of the river taken in an instant downstream of the overflow web site throughout the first week discovered ranges of E.coli micro organism to be just about 12,000 occasions human protection ranges. Even if contamination is reportedly dissipating additional downstream, the predicted sluggish soften from the world’s heavy Jan, 25 snow fall will most probably no longer support the method in an instant.
DC Water says its $625-million funding over the following ten years is for initiatives to rehabilitate sections of the Potomac Interceptor, which varies in measurement from 30-in- to 96-in-dia. strengthened concrete pipe in the primary trunk to 13-ft x 7.75-foot oblong, strengthened concrete pipe within the sewer machine’s decrease reaches.
The world the place the rupture came about was once to were a part of that program, however it’s unsure when any paintings there was once to happen. On the time DC Water introduced the present rehabilitation challenge by way of Citadel Myer Development, the company famous that “a bigger improve” at the interceptor was once deliberate for later in 2025.
