Thomas St NW household receives exorbitant DC Water bill

See this message from a Thomas Street NW resident:

I just got billed for 1,160 days of water service, with an automatic deduction form my bank account of $1,700. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

recently renovated WASA facility at 2nd & Bryant: early morning vehicular noise

From a resident on the 100 block of Bryant Street NW:

If folks are curious what development can bring to a neighborhood, I suggest they come for a very early morning stroll at the corner of Bryant and 2nd Street NW. The city rebuilt a previously abandoned warehouse and have put it to use as a staging point for DPW/WASA vehicles. I walk my dogs by there in the morning around 6:30 am and it is very loud, with lots of people talking loudly, loud vehicles coming and going, and I feel badly for the folks who live across the street. I spoke to one of the folks living there and she told me it can start as early as 3:00 in the morning. Yikes. Now, at night, those houses have the benefit of two or three guys sitting out front of the warehouse every day till late watching the street, so that is a benefit. And the building looks better.

CM Thomas' emergency community meeting tonight at 6pm regarding flooding

See this 8/13/2010 message crafted by Vicky Leonard and distributed by Bloomingdale Civic Association President Robert Brannum:

Emergency Community Meeting Notice

Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas, Jr. and officials from D.C. Water, formerly D.C. Water and Sewer Authority will conduct a walk-through of Bloomingdale, today, Friday, 13 August 2010, 5:00 pm starting at Second and Thomas Streets, NW. The walk-through will be followed by an emergency community meeting at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 2nd and U Streets, NW, 6:00 pm.

Robert

Robert Vinson Brannum
President
Bloomingdale Civic Association, Inc.

? basement flooding in Bloomingdale ?

The following two Emails were received this morning.

From a resident on 1st Street NW near S Street NW:

Our sewer backed up and flooded our basement during the storm, any other reports of flooding?

From a resident on the north side of the 100 block of U Street NW between Flagler & 2nd Street NW:

I just wanted to let you know I experienced some minor drain backups during the intense rains this morning. The outdoor drains at the front and rear of my basement backed up. Also, the laundry wash tub had some backup sediment in it as well.

I find this odd, as in the past when this neighborhood has flooded, the drain backups didn`t occur until the street actually started to flood. Seems like the opposite case this time.

Hope everyone else faired OK and didn`t get heavily flooded.

Flooding update.

While doing some cleanup in the front yard I noticed strange debris patterns on the sidewalk and tree lawn. It is apparent that the sewers at the corner of U St and Flagler NW did indeed get overwhelmed and did backup. It looks like the street started to flood as the water levels did reach the sidewalk in front off my house.

From ANC 5C04 Commissioner John Salatti:

Yes, U and Thomas NW both had significant flood issues; I suspect Rhode Island Avenue did, too. The water was lapping the first step off the sidewalk on U Street in front of many houses and on Thomas, I have heard that most basements took on water. The basement at a house on the 100 block of U Street NW, southside, was inundated and a couple of others took on some water, particularly if the homes did not have backflow preventers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backflow_prevention_device), which prevent water from coming back into the house through the basement toilets and showers. A few cars also took on water. A tree fell on Flagler lightly damaging a car. A couple of manhole covers blew out and one was broken, but WASA had it replaced by 9:00 am.

From a Thomas Street NW resident:

I did get a little bit of flooding this morning as did a number of other homes on Thomas Street NW. WASA came by and cleaned out the storm drains around 9:00 am. They also left a few sandbags for people to pick up. Notwithstanding they are filled with wet sand and weigh at least 10 pounds.

WASA work coming up for Flagler and U St NW

See this 09/19/2009 message from ANC 5C04 Commissioner John Salatti.

DC WASA will be doing a water line and lead pipe replacement project on Flagler Place NW and half of the 100 block of U Street NW. The agency is currently seeking a permit to start work, and the starting date will be directly a factor of when DCRA issues the permit. The project will start at Adams and come down Flagler and turn left on to U Street and end at 1st NW. The project will proceed one block at a time to minimize the parking problems that are going to result from this work. The typical work day will run from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. This will make parking much more problematic, but will allow the agency to get the work done in half the time. But even with this work day, each block on Flagler will take 45-50 days to complete.

None of this water project will impact the 100 block of V Street or 2nd Street NW.