Water is gushing down the street. Here’s who you call.

by Marlene Berlin

This is the scene that greeted me on Tuesday as I was walking up Davenport Street from Broad Branch Road.

It had been rainy, but the amount of water flowing down Davenport was excessive. My first thought was that I would find that a fire hydrant just beyond the curve had burst. Instead, I found water gushing out of the drain below the hydrant.

There is a drain somewhere under all this water.

I called the first DC Water contact I could think of: Emmanuel Briggs, the director of Community Affairs, and he sent my message along to the DC Water Command Center. We should call the Command Center directly at 202-612-3400 when we see an issue like this.

About half an hour later, I called the center myself, and was told a crew had already been out to fix the problem. The fire hydrant was the cause, after all. It had been leaking.

With the region under a drought watch since Monday, and residents and businesses being asked to conserve water where we can, it’s even more important to add the Command Center’s number to your contacts list. Let’s not waste a drop.