DC Water today announced a plan to partner its cutting-edge green infrastructure technology with the District’s renewed focus on repairing alleys as part of an ongoing effort to reduce runoff and pollution in the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek.
 
The plan calls for installing permeable pavement in six alleys in Wards 1 and 4. Those neighborhoods were selected because of their location as key drainage points for the Rock Creek watershed and also because the alleys were slated for renovation by the District Department of Transportation.
 
“DC Water is excited to team up with the District government to build green alleys,” said Carlton Ray, Director of the Clean Rivers project at DC Water. “This green infrastructure will bring benefits to the community and reduce stormwater runoff going into the combined sewer system to help clean Rock Creek.”
 
This year marks the first time that DDOT and DC Water have partnered in a formal alliance to mesh green building practices with alley rehabilitation. The six locations where permeable pavement will be installed are:
 
•         715 Madison Street NW (ANC4B)
•         5511 13th Street NW (ANC4C)
•         4611 Arkansas Avenue NW (ANC4C)
•         509 Randolph Street NW (ANC4C)
•         600 Hamilton Street NW (ANC4D)
•         1365 Oak Street NW (ANC1A)
 
By partnering with the alley upgrades, the community will receive benefits and time and resources will be saved.
 
For years, DC Water has been implementing its DC Clean Rivers Project to reduce storm water runoff and pollution to the waterways in Washington DC by building underground tunnels to collect and treat it at Blue Plains, the largest advanced waste water treatment facility in the world.
 
To supplement that effort, DC Water committed in 2015 to incorporate green infrastructure into the plans for reducing 96 percent of combined sewer overflow in the area’s rivers. In addition to the newly announced alley sites, green infrastructure projects will begin later this year in the Manor Park/Brightwood neighborhoods and early 2018 in Burleith/Glover Park neighborhoods.
 
Permeable pavement is a green infrastructure technique that mimics natural conditions to capture, filter and slowdown stormwater runoff before it enters the combined sewer system and contributes to overflows with untreated sewage that pollutes rivers.