The sewer rehabilitation project in the Soapstone Valley is also a stream restoration project, intended both to repair damage from years of stormwater erosion and to armor the sewer lines and access points against future stormwater events.
Jerrell Johnson of DC Water told ANC 3F’s July 19th meeting (watch the presentation) that 45 percent of the stream restoration work was complete, and the work was 100 percent complete at two of the six work sites in the valley.
The stream restoration work at Site 1, the work site closest to Connecticut Avenue, will be finished by the end of the month, and not a moment too soon for residents of neighboring buildings. A resident of Park Van Ness told DC Water officials and ANC commissioners that she had measured noise in excess of 80 decibels from inside her apartment, and the noise was constant, going from 7 in the morning until 5 to 7 at night.
Johnson said the noise was from two pumps used to reroute the creek and the discharge from a storm sewer pipe, and that the DC Water team has tried to resolve the noise issue by installing “noise-reducing shelters.”
He also said the team is working as quickly as it can to finish the Site 1 work requiring the use of one pump, at which point it will be removed. Johnson did not give a timeline for the removal of the other pump.
Will Elledge of DC Water, who has been a constant presence in the nine years since the project was presented to the community, said the noise is below the city’s allowable limits. However, DC regulations show 70 decibels is the limit for construction noise. Forest Hills Connection has asked DC Water for clarification.
The next stage of the project is the restoration of the 110-year-old sewer pipes, which will be relined with a plastic resin in a process called “cured-in-place pipe,” or CIPP. Johnson said the DC Department of Energy and Environment is requiring an air quality permit for the boiler truck, which will be idling for six to eight hours a day while it heats the water required for curing the lining. DC Water’s permit application is still pending, and Johnson said DOEE had returned it for further clarification.
Upon questioning about the timing of the CIPP work, Kevin Schnabel of Soapstone contractor IPR said they cannot begin without the DOEE permit, and that this part of the project would not get under way for at least 60 days. He also said the community would be notified before the work gets under way.
Another update on the project came from ANC 3F Commissioner Dipa Mehta, who talked about a recent meeting she had with DOEE, DC Water and AECOM, an engineering firm who has been brought on to develop an air quality monitoring plan. Also in attendance were Marjorie Share, a community activist who initially raised concerns about the emissions from steam and hot water methods of curing the pipe lining, and Mitch Baer, an air quality expert and resident of Park Van Ness. Mehta reminded viewers that the reason the community was raising air safety concerns is that the process is like manufacturing plastic, a process that is heavily regulated when performed indoors. Elledge clarified that while AECOM is developing the monitoring plan, the Water Research Foundation, an Alexandria-based nonprofit, would hire a university to conduct the air quality testing and oversee that work.
David Bardin, a former ANC commissioner who once served on the DC Water Board of Directors, asked Elledge for a yes or no answer to his question: whether the utility knew, in all the years it’s been using CIPP for rehabilitating sewer pipes, how many chemicals were released into the air using using this process. Elledge said DC Water has been using CIPP since the 1980s, and his answer was no.
Mehta also said she would work closely with DC Water on augmenting public communication on the project so that neighbors and community members would have a better sense of the timeline, work hours, and emissions testing results: “all of those various components about the project that are particularly relevant for the homes and businesses that are directly adjacent to the project site.”
To receive regular email updates from DC Water on the Soapstone sewer project, write to [email protected] with “ADD ME” in the subject line. The 24/7 project hotline is 202-301-8058.
Michael Chorost says
Thank you for this coverage. Hyperlocal coverage is so important for keeping officials accountable and ensuring that the community has important information at hand. I walk this trail frequently and it’s important to know the restoration work is being carried out.
David Jonas Bardin says
I wanted to learn from Mr. Elledge whether DC Water even knows “what chemicals” in “what quantities” its many cured-in-place (CIPP) projects have released to the environment. I understood his answer to be “no”.
FHC’s shorthand summary of our exchange is:
“David Bardin, a former ANC commissioner who once served on the DC Water Board of Directors, asked Elledge for a yes or no answer to his question: whether the utility knew, in all the years it’s been using CIPP for rehabilitating sewer pipes, how many chemicals were released into the air using using this process. Elledge said DC Water has been using CIPP since the 1980s, and his answer was no.“
FHC says
Thanks to you, and to Green Eyeshades below, for correcting the record. Our paraphrasing fell short.
Green Eyeshades says
David Bardin’s comment is the correct rendition of his question and Elledge’s answer, as I posted last week in this comment:
https://www.foresthillsconnection.com/news/in-appreciation-of-the-mayors-office-liaisons-who-are-here-to-get-stuff-done/#comment-703754
marjorie share says
Thank you to the Forest Hills Connection (Marlene and Tracy) for their continual high-quality coverage of this issue. And, to David Bardin for his wisdom and knack for asking the right questions. Although DC Water shifted from using steam CIPP to using hot water CIPP in Soapstone, these are both thermal methods and carry health and environmental risks. We may no longer see the large white plume containing VOCs rising in the air (which is akin to the burning water in the fracking debate) but there will be harmful chemicals emitted that if not contained, monitored and tested could adversely impact outdoor air and water, as well as the interiors of nearby buildings.
A few key points to add::
We’re on it. Although DOEE decided not to require an air permit, it is requiring DC Water to create an air quality monitoring and testing plan. We are working closely with internally-recognized experts on CIPP and its public health impacts. to improve the plan. We in Forest Hills are now at the cutting edge of an issue that will soon involve the entire City and is already national is scope. DC Water has hired a consultant to create this plan and will hire another consultant to provide oversight. Among our tasks is to make sure these consultants are both independent of DC Water and are not captured by funding from the thermal (steam and hot water) CIPP industry.
As Commissioner Mehta repeatedly points out, CIPP will turn Soapstone into a plastic manufacturing factory adjacent to our homes, school and workplaces. The CIPP industry has been ignoring public health much as the tobacco industry once did, a comparison that Marlene Berlin has emphasized..
Knowing what chemicals to test for and conducting adequate monitoring and testing as well as crafting a shutdown process should anything adverse occur are tasks that even the best academic researchers are still working to define.
Green Eyeshades says
Marjorie, thank you very much for volunteering so much of your time and expertise to defend our neighborhoods against dangerous chemical pollution from the “plastic manufacturing factory” that DC Water wants to build in Soapstone Ravine.
Recently, the EPA issued health advisories about drinking water. Among many other impacts, those advisories forced two major chemical manufacturers to spend scores of millions dollars more on cleaning up “forever chemicals” released from a single factory covered by an environmental clean-up consent order.
Those “forever chemicals” are per- and polyfluroalkyl substances (PFAS). Two major chemical makers notified shareholders that the drinking water advisories require each of them to increase their costs for clean-up of PFAS at the factory where they share liability. Bloomberg Law reported that the additional PFAS cleanup costs for the two firms which share clean-up liability under the consent order will increase clean-up costs by $56 million for one of the firms and by $151 million for the second firm.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/chemours-dupont-update-pfas-liability-due-to-epa-advisories
Is there any risk that the “plastic manufacturing factory” in Soapstone Ravine will release PFAS (forever chemicals) into Rock Creek, which flows into the Potomac River, which is the source of drinking water for millions of people?
Did DC Water get a permit allowing DC Water and its contractors to release carcinogenic chemicals into the water in Rock Creek?
Gloria Nickels says
I’m sorry, but I find this confusing….or perhaps dishonest. DC Water has been using CIPP since the eighties, but they have no idea what chemical compounds and airborne debris are emitted? This is acceptable to everyone? I am amazed.
Green Eyeshades says
This is NOT “acceptable to everyone.” That is the point of Marjorie Share’s July 30 comment just above yours.
Please look again at Marjorie’s comment, especially this portion:
[snip] “We in Forest Hills are now at the cutting edge of an issue that will soon involve the entire City and is already national is scope. DC Water has hired a consultant to create this plan and will hire another consultant to provide oversight. Among our tasks is to make sure these consultants are both independent of DC Water and are not captured by funding from the thermal (steam and hot water) CIPP industry.
“As Commissioner Mehta repeatedly points out, CIPP will turn Soapstone into a plastic manufacturing factory adjacent to our homes, school and workplaces. The CIPP industry has been ignoring public health much as the tobacco industry once did, a comparison that Marlene Berlin has emphasized.” [snip]
I hope you can see that Forest Hills Connection and ANC3F have been monitoring DC Water and DOEE closely for years, specifically to prevent the DC government and its contractors from spewing carcinogenic chemicals into our air and water, and into our buildings near Soapstone Ravine.
Gloria Nickels says
Mr. Eyeshades, you misunderstand me. I am amazed so many CIPP projects have occurred without disclosure of the pollutants released into the environment.
I am sure the industry knows exactly what is released and the impact on surrounding areas and the length of time the pollutants remain, and at what levels they remain.
This is the dishonesty I am referring to, and I cannot fathom anyone could accept this and allow this work to happen. Where are the environmental activists protesting this BEFORE the trucks and equipment show up? Where are the signs? When will the protests starting?
I want to be there.