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Chlorinated Water Being Dumped into Sligo
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Clair Garman January 21, 2006 |
Original Posting January 10, 2006 |
DEP and MDE Reports January 11, 2006 |
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Letter to WSSC from FoSC January 24, 2006 |
WSSC Response to FoSC Letter February 9, 2006 |
WSSC Report at FoSC Meeting May 15, 2007 |
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On January 20, 2006, two Friends of Sligo Creek board members, Bruce Sidwell and Clair Garman, and Larry Silverman, lawyer for Anacostia Watershed Society, met with three customer care representatives of WSSC to discuss the recent dumping of chlorinated water into Sligo. Representing WSSC were Ramona Montgomery, Rudy Chow and Lydia Wilson.
Explanation of the spill by WSSC
Schematic diagram of the elements of the dumping
An eductor device was to be installed in a WSSC Wheaton water storage tank to allow the water at the bottom of the tank (below the normal discharge pipe) to be drained from the tank. In order to allow attachment of the eductor to the 36 inch water distribution pipe, that pipe needed to be drained of water. The week prior to the draining of the pipe on January 5 the pipe was taken from the water distribution system; other pipes from the storage tank were used to distribute water from the tank.
Because of the older contruction of the end wall in this case, there was no way to attach the plastic pipe to the end wall. The WSSC crew instead filled two bags with 170 tablets each, triple the normal amount. One bag was suspended over the end wall outlet as shown in the above photo. A second bag was laid in the channel 50 feet from the end wall. The draining of the 36 inch pipe through the 10 inch pipe and the end wall was begun at 11am, Thursday, January 5, 2006. The bags were checked by the WSSC crew at 3pm that day and the bags refilled. The bags were checked and refilled again on 8am and 3pm Friday. Because so few of the tablets were found to be dissolved, the crew felt that the existing bags and tablets would last during the weekend. Normally a brick would have been placed in the bag hanging over the end wall to ensure contact with the water flow. No brick was used in this case. WSSC was called by The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Thursday, January 5, and told that the discharge of water had washed out a barrier erected by DEP to drain the stormwater ponds near University Boulevard. The stormwater ponds were, as a result, filling again with water. No action was taken at this time. The WSSC unit coordinator in charge of the crew working on the discharge received a call on his office answering machine on Sunday but did not pick up the message until he came to the office on Monday. The WSSC people at the meeting did not know from whom the call came. The WSSC customer care representatives at the meeting were not aware of any other calls dealing with the discharge. At 9:30am on Monday, January 9, the WSSC unit coordinator visited the scene, met with several local residents who expressed their displeasure. He consulted with the contractor who was to connect the eductor to the water storage tank and confirmed that the water level in the 36 inch pipe had been reduced to a level that would allow the connection of the eductor. At that time the discharge was terminated. As a result of this incident, WSSC is instituting training sessions with its crews to make them more environmentally aware. They will survey for end walls of the earlier design and design a connector that will work with this type of end wall. |
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The intention was to drain the water from the pipe through a 10 inch pipe into Sligo Creek. The end of the 10 inch pipe is an open pipe running through a concrete end wall. This end wall was built in 1951 when dechlorination was not considered. Newer end walls have a steel plate covering the outlet attached to bolts imbedded in the concrete.