Is DC Water listening? (Photos)
- COMMUNITY ISSUES
- MAY 16, 2013
- BY: ROBERT VINSON BRANNUM
- I live on Adams Street, NW in the Bloomingdale community of the District. The house I live in was not only the home to my mother and her sister; it is where they both were married.
Historically, Bloomingdale was the country estate of George and Emily Beale, members of a prominent Washington military family. In 1834 George Beale deeded land and right-of-way to springs on his Bloomingdale estate to the District to be used as water supply for the Capitol. President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant reportedly were frequent guests to the Beale home.
Bloomingdale was derived along Tiber Creek which by the end of the 19th century was paved over and filled in to create other neighboring communities.
Over the years, flooding has become a serious concern to the residents of Bloomingdale. In my memory, the August 2001 flooding was the most serious to hit the community. This event caused a first presidential disaster declaration for the District.
To address the flooding in Bloomingdale, District MayorVincent C. Gray announced a DC Water [DCWASA]initiative “to mitigate flooding and sewer backups in the Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park neighborhoods.”
One part of the DC Water flooding mitigation in Bloomingdale is called the Northeast Boundary Neighborhood Protection Project. This project calls for the building of a “diversion, adit, and drop shaft” on Flagler with supporting equipment staging.
This work is to be done as DC Water is already progressing on another one-year pumping station project on neighborhood Bryant and 2nd Streets.
While all of Bloomingdale agree a resolution to the community flooding is needed, many residents are concerned by the lack of advance and community-wide outreach by DC Water. Some residents feel DC Water is attempting to pit neighbors against neighbor to solve a community and District-wide problem.
What has Bloomingdale residents of Adams Street and Flagler Place upset is that DC Water plans call for the closing of portions of their streets for up to three (3) years and DC Water did not notify homeowners in advance of its plans. It seems DC Water focused its outreach primarily, if only to homeowners devastated by the flooding, and failed to brief homeowners who will be impacted.
According to DC Water officials, its community outreach effort did call for a community-wide brief, but rather separate street by street community meetings. Homeowners on Adams Street and Flagler Place found this approach offensive, divisive, and unnecessary.
Many Bloomingdale residents have serious questions about long-term access, parking, public safety [police, fire and EMS response] and are quality.
In several hastily called community meetings, residents acknowledge the need for the work, but object to the process by which DC Water failed to inform and involve the whole Bloomingdale community. Some Bloomingdale residents on Adams Street and Flagler Place feel ignored.
DC Water could have done better and it should have.
E-mail contact information: rbrannum@robertbrannum.com
Twitter: @robert158
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