EleanorHolmes Norton suggests feds should pay for Bloomingdale flooding fix
By
Mike DeBonis , Updated: January 23, 2013
More
than a month ago, D.C. Water and the city government announced a joint plan to
address flash-flooding in the Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park neighborhoods.
Today, funding for the $40 million plan has yet to be finalized, and now the
District`s congressional delegate is proposing that the federal government pick
up the tab.
Del.
Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) said in a news release that she has sent a letter to
President Obama requesting his administration include the $40 million in his
next budget request to Congress. The plan would build stormwater storage tanks
on the McMillan Sand Filtration Site north of the affected areas, as well as
accelerate construction on a long-planned underground storage tunnel there.
Part
of the pitch, according to Norton`s release, is that the feds bear some
responsibility for the underlying problem: ``The flooding is the result of
insufficient capacity in the Northeast Boundary Trunk Sewer (NEBTS), which was
constructed by the federal government in the late 1800s,`` according to an
excerpt of the letter.
[removed sentence here.]
Under
scenarios previously discussed by officials, the city government would pay for
the accelerated flood relief plans, but the situation has been complicated by
the city`s debt cap. By law, the District government can`t spend more than 12
percent of its operating budget on debt service, and it is inching up on that
limit. One possible solution would have D.C. Water borrow the money but have
the city commit to pay the debt service.
[removed sentence here.]
The
$40 million price tag presents the cost of the Bloomingdale relief plan above
and beyond the costs anticipated in the citywide Clean Rivers Project,
estimated to cost $2.6 billion through 2025. [removed sentence here.]
Regardless
of who ends up paying, D.C. Water said it is committed to moving forward with
the plan and meeting a timeline that would starting giving affected residents
meaningful relief by the spring of 2014. [removed sentence here.]
[removed sentence here.]
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