Monday, April 07, 2014

regarding the DCRA raze permit for the McMillan Sand Filtration site

See this string of Emails regarding the raze permit for the McMillan Sand Filtration site:


From: Emanuel D. Briggs <Emanuel.Briggs@dcwater.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 4:03 PM
Subject: RE: DCRA Raze Permit
To: Mat Bader 
Cc: Andrea Williams <Andrea.Williams@dcwater.com>


No problem.  In fact, below is a slightly more modified version of the response.
                     
1) I believe that I heard at the last presentation that DCWASA would no longer store storm water in both sites on McMillan and instead stick with the N. Capitol cell site as a result of sewage running through the pipe coming down first street. Can you please confirm that you will no longer create a store cell on McMillan in the southwest quandrant of McMillan? Yes, DC Water will only utilize one cell adjacent to North Capitol Street for stormwater storage. The work at the southwest corner of the McMillan Sand Filtration Tanks is related to the First Street Tunnel construction work (also see response to Question 2 below).
                                    
 2) I thought that the raze permits were with regard to the storage cell that you all had planned to create on McMillan. Your email seems to indicate that these raze permits are actually with respect to the Channing Street dropshaft. If that's the case, my logical question is, why would you need to raze two cells on McMillan in order to create a dropshaft that will go under Channing Street (which is clearly not a part of the McMillan site). The work to repurpose the sand filtration cell for stormwater storage does not require demolition of the tank and is not related to the DCRA Raze Permit. The DCRA Raze Permit was obtained for demolition of the cells 25 and 26 at the southwest corner of the McMillan Sand Filtration facility; this area will be used as a staging and shaft location area for the First Street Tunnel Project. The shaft is located on the southwest corner of McMillan and the tunnel begins in that shaft and runs under the intersection of Channing Street and First Street, and south along First Street to Rhode Island Avenue. All the above described shaft work is confined to land owned by the District on the McMillan site.
                           
Thanks again!


Emanuel D. Briggs | Manager, Community Outreach, External Affairs | District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority | emanuel.briggs@dcwater.com
5000 Overlook Avenue, SW | Washington, DC 20032 | (202) 787-2003 (202) 787-4122 (fax)
Water is Life! | Web | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Flickr

From: Mat Bader
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 3:56 PM
To: Emanuel D. Briggs

Cc: Andrea Williams
Subject: Re: DCRA Raze Permit

Thanks Emanuel, I really appreciate your response. I'll just go back and look over the information that I have as I was clearly mistaken on what work DCWASA will be performing up there.
Mat

On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 3:51 PM, Emanuel D. Briggs <Emanuel.Briggs@dcwater.com> wrote:

Hello Mat:

As promised, responses to your inquiries are below:
                  
1) I believe that I heard at the last presentation that DCWASA would no longer store storm water in both sites on McMillan and instead stick with the N. Capitol cell site as a result of sewage running through the pipe coming down first street. Can you please confirm that you will no longer create a store cell on McMillan in the southwest quandrant of McMillan? Yes, DC Water will only utilize one cell adjacent to North Capitol Street for stormwater storage. The work at the southwest corner of the McMillan Sand Filtration Tanks is related to the First Street Tunnel construction work (also see response to Question 2 below).
                
 2) I thought that the raze permits were with regard to the storage cell that you all had planned to create on McMillan. Your email seems to indicate that these raze permits are actually with respect to the Channing Street dropshaft. If that's the case, my logical question is, why would you need to raze two cells on McMillan in order to create a dropshaft that will go under Channing Street (which is clearly not a part of the McMillan site). The work to repurpose the sand filtration cell for stormwater storage does not require demolition of the tank and is not related to the DCRA Raze Permit. The DCRA Raze Permit was obtained for demolition of the cells 25 and 26 at the southeast corner of the McMillan Sand Filtration facility; this area will be used as a staging and shaft location area for the First Street Tunnel Project. The shaft is located on the southwest corner of McMillan and the tunnel begins in that shaft and runs under the intersection of Channing Street and First Street, and south along First Street to Rhode Island Avenue. All the above described shaft work is confined to land owned by the District on the McMillan site.
         
Thanks much!


Emanuel D. Briggs | Manager, Community Outreach, External Affairs | District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority | emanuel.briggs@dcwater.com
5000 Overlook Avenue, SW | Washington, DC 20032 | (202) 787-2003 | (202) 787-4122 (fax)
Water is Life! | Web | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Flickr

From: Mat Bader
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 9:06 AM
       
To: Emanuel D. Briggs
Cc: Andrea Williams
Subject: Re: DCRA Raze Permit
  
Thanks for the update Emanuel.

Mat
  
On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 8:59 AM, Emanuel D. Briggs <Emanuel.Briggs@dcwater.com> wrote:
      
Hello Mat:

We should be able to get you a response today. Let me get with Ms. Williams on this.

Emanuel

From: Mat Bader
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 5:50:41 AM
To: Emanuel D. Briggs
Cc: Andrea Williams
Subject: 
Re: DCRA Raze Permit
   
Hey Emanuel, any update on my question? It's been a week now and figure this is a fairly straight forward response. Thanks.

Mat
  
On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 12:23 PM, Emanuel D. Briggs <Emanuel.Briggs@dcwater.com> wrote:
             
Hello Mr. Bader:
   
We will need to discuss these inquiries with our engineering team and get back to you.
   
Emanuel

From: Mat Bader
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 12:19 PM
To: Emanuel D. Briggs
Subject: 
DCRA Raze Permit
  
Mr Briggs, in the most recent listserv email Scott Roberts posted the response that you sent him regarding the DCRA raze permit (I've included this email below). In this response you indicated that demolition of these two cells is required for the drop shaft on Channing Street. My question for you is two-fold:
       
1) I believe that I heard at the last presentation that DCWASA would no longer store storm water in both sites on McMillan and instead stick with the N. Capitol cell site as a result of sewage running through the pipe coming down first street. Can you please confirm that you will no longer create a store cell on McMillan in the southwest quandrant of McMillan?
  
2) I thought that the raze permits were with regard to the storage cell that you all had planned to create on McMillan. Your email seems to indicate that these raze permits are actually with respect to the Channing Street dropshaft. If that's the case, my logical question is, why would you need to raze two cells on McMillan in order to create a dropshaft that will go under Channing Street (which is clearly not a part of the McMillan site).
         
Thanks Emanuel and I look forward to your response.
  
Mat
  
From: Emanuel D. Briggs <Emanuel.Briggs @ dcwater.com>
Cc: Andrea Williams <Andrea.Williams @ dcwater.com>; John Lisle <John.Lisle @ dcwater.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 10:24 AM
Subject: RE: revisiting: DCRA raze permit for the McMillan Sand Filtration site

Scott:

As promised, below is the response to your inquiry from our engineering team.

The Raze Permit is for the demolition of McMillan Sand Filtration Cells No. 25 and 26 to construct the Channing Street Drop Shaft and subsequently the First Street Tunnel, which is part of the Northeast Boundary Neighborhood Protection Project.

Thanks much for your patience, and please let us know of any other questions, comments or concerns.

Have a great day!


5 comments:

Unknown said...

Just for some context, I didn't actually send this to Scott to post but just for his personal information. Either way, I forwarded this chain along because DCWASA has begun partial demolition of cell 26 along with the full demolition of cell 25.

Mathew Bader
Bloomingdale Civic Association (BCA) McMillan Advisory Group (MAG) Representative

Todd said...

Right...and from previous communications with DCWASA they had clarified that ONLY the cell in the far SW corner (25) would be impacted (although their raze permit Did include both cells). So the fact that part of 26 is now gone is a major loss...this represents a major portion of the sight...probably on the order of 10% of the total plinth.

Todd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Todd said...

Further, another question that needs to be raised now...is that with this much of the plinth gone, what is going to be the cost to reconstruct it per the VMP design. The VMP design stipulates the plinth is there in it's totality. To reconstruct this much of this plinth is going to be vastly expensive which is what the DC gov't has said it will do. It makes NO sense at all. This is money that could instead be put to better use to transform this section into a Paddington Reservoir type park rather than reconstitute the entire plinth. Or are they just going to use it for underground parking? Any any event we are faced with two options: 1) the DC gov't uses tons of money that could be spent better elsewhere to ensure the integrity of the VMP design; 2) VMP must significantly alter it's design for the park based on this razing taking place.

Unknown said...

Todd,

I will need to look into this but it's my understanding that DCWASA is responsible for rebuilding the cells once it's completed the staging work. I do not believe these will be columns but they are to put back in the plinth.

Let me check on this and provide a more precise response later.

Mathew Bader
BCA MAG Representative