District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) officials are canvassing the area of Oklahoma Avenue and 21st and 23rd streets, NE, to assess the impact of a sewer backup that occurred shortly after midnight Friday, December 16. At least 20 homes may have been affected. Cleaning services have been contacted to assist those residents impacted.

A WASA crew has cleared the backup, the flow is down, and sewage is being routed from the nearby Eastside Pumping Station to the Blue Plains wastewater treatment facility.

Meanwhile, WASA continues to investigate the cause of the backup. Preliminary indications suggest that heavy rainwater buildup may have overwhelmed sewer lines that were rerouted to accommodate construction activity near the Eastside Pumping Station, at 17th Street and Independence Avenue, NE.

About WASA:

DCWASA is a regional utility that provides drinking water and wastewater collection and treatment for more than 500,000 residential, commercial, and governmental customers in the District of Columbia, and also collects and treats wastewater for another 1.6 million customers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland, and Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia. WASA purchases its drinking water from the Washington Aqueduct, a division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which treats it. Then WASA distributes it throughout the District of Columbia.

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