Legislative Director
Dave Thomas
dslmd@cbyca.org
Spring this March was fully welcomed by me!
While the coastal blizzard with over a foot of snow was exotic and pretiy (but also really did a number on the landscaping with all that wet snow and wind), I am ready for winter’s end!
I am impressed by the sudden similarity Washington D.C. now has with Baltimore: Aging sewer infrastructure has brought expensive problems that will involve a lot to deal with, and for some years. Recreational boating, fishing and shell fishing impacts are still in the process of shaking out aer an aging “interconnector” pipe of good size and 60 years on the job gave up the ghost and in a matier of days spewed perhaps a few hundred million gallons of untreated spooge into the Potomac River, and its “scent” into many millions of nostrils. Oh, yeah. And how.
The similarity with Baltimore is that a bigger older city’s basic “plumbing” works well for a lot of years, out of sight, out of mind. But, when it reaches the point that, due to age or neglect or both, it hits the wall, the discoveries arrive. Correcting this infrastructure that has served so long can be quite disruptive, expensive, difficult to get to and correct. This skews capital budgets and takes years to accomplish. One complication is that the sewage flows can’t be stopped, so involved pumping with by-passes have to be arranged while the line that is “shot” is replaced. The alternative of patching just the section where the failure occurred in the ancient pipe will, in time, devolve into endless repairs forcing costly replacement.
I suspect that maintaining recreational quality water near bigger cities may increasingly face difficulties. Part of the bigger picture is that in 1900 in the U.S., indoor toilet plumbing was almost rare, confined to wealthy urban areas. In 1940, only about half of the U.S. population had indoor toilet plumbing, whereas by 1960 it was nearly universal in urban areas. Hence the significance of the pipe that failed and needing replacement being 60 years old: this is in line with significant historical plumbing infrastructure expansion starting to come of age for major atiention.
The situation along the Potomac is also bringing into focus the differing protocols various jurisdictions have in terms of water quality and safety. This includes what kind and frequency of testing, including the test content itself, as to general water quality issues, as to viruses and bacteria, well beyond testing for only fecal matier itself. Other issues concern the various bodily contact advisories, fishing or shell fishing quarantines and the areas covered or the durations that will be specified. The uncertainty here of late has not been helpful. In view of the livelihoods and all that stand to be impacted, clear, trustworthy measures that are not either over broad nor under-inclusive need to be worked out and published in ways that support safety and public confidence.
To have different sides and/or intervals of the same river erratically publish conflicting precautions simply does not instill confidence. Close coordination with unitary and clear messaging and moreover not appearing, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, in seemingly uneven or contrary ways, is important to confidence and a deserved sense of public safety.