Today DC Water General Manager George S. Hawkins announced a 30-day extension to the public comment period for a dramatic plan leveraging green infrastructure (GI) to reduce combined sewer overflows in the District and to green portions of the city on an unprecedented scale. The extension provides the public and interest groups with a total of 90 days to comment on the proposal at dcwater.com/green.

Green infrastructure is a natural way to manage stormwater by absorbing rain before it enters the sewer or stormwater system. Examples include green roofs, bioretention, rain barrels and pervious pavement. Keeping stormwater out of the sewer system can go a long way to improving the health of our local waterways, since it contributes to combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in heavy rain storms.

DC Water is proposing the use of a hybrid approach that will substitute green infrastructure for some – but not all - of the massive tunnels planned to convey stormwater and sewage to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. The proposed modifications to the Long Term Control Plan (Clean Rivers Project) were released on January 12, 2014. Since then, DC Water has participated in over a dozen meetings to educate residents and stakeholders on the proposal.

“We are excited the public and stakeholders have taken an interest in our innovative proposal. Given the scale of the proposed investments, it is appropriate that we extend the comment period to maximize the public’s involvement in our decision making,” commented Mr. Hawkins. “We recognize our proposal has many facets, and we feel strongly that it will provide benefits not achieved under the current plan like increased property values, neighborhood beautification, enhancing public space, local green jobs, and lower water and sewer bills,” said Mr. Hawkins. “We hope the public will continue to voice their support for our proposed approach during the extended comment period.”

Currently, DC Water is implementing the $2.6 billion Clean Rivers Project under the terms of a federally mandated consent decree. The first phase is underway and involves constructing a massive underground tunnel system to hold stormwater during intense storms, preventing most combined sewer overflows to the Anacostia River. These overflows, which currently discharge about 1.5 billion gallons of diluted sewage to the Anacostia in an average year, will be reduced by 98 percent when the tunnel system is completed in 2022. The later phases will address overflows to the Potomac River and Rock Creek.

DC Water has been exploring the use of GI for the Clean Rivers Project for the Potomac River and Rock Creek drainage areas. There is growing evidence that green infrastructure would provide greater benefits to the community than the previously planned underground storage and conveyance tunnels for the Potomac River and Rock Creek.

The existing plans for the Anacostia River tunnels remain unchanged, but DC Water proposes including green infrastructure as part of the solution to combined sewer overflows in the Rock Creek and Potomac River drainage areas.

For Rock Creek, DC Water proposes eliminating the planned tunnel and replacing it with $60 million of green infrastructure. Implementation would begin in 2015 and be completed by 2032.

For the Potomac River, DC Water proposes $30 million of green infrastructure that would begin installation in 2016 and be completed by 2028. The green infrastructure investment, combined with new upgrades to the wet weather treatment capacity at DC Waters Blue Plains facility, will allow the previously planned underground tunnel along the Potomac River to be reduced in size. The smaller tunnel would be completed in 2030. In addition, $10 million would be invested to separate the combined sewer system in designated neighborhoods.

For more information and to comment on the proposed modifications to the Long Term Control Plan, please visit: dcwater.com/green. The public can comment on the proposal between now and April 14, 2014. For more information on the Clean Rivers Project, please visit dcwater.com/cleanrivers.