Chlorinated Water Being Dumped into Sligo
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Kathy Michels - Contacts and Timeline

DEP inspection staff immediately notified the WSSC. Later (approximately 5:10.p.m.), WSSC staff left a voice mail message with the DEP inspection supervisor indicating that WSSC was conducting maintenance on a 30" water main , requiring that it be drained to enable installation of a new valve connection to a Wheaton water storage tank. While their message indicated that the discharge had been dechlorinated , no evidence of effective dechlorination was evident. At the site an unsecured bucket of D-Chlor tablets was nearby but a bag on a rope, containing Sodium Suflite tablets for D-Chlorination did not touch the water.

Saturday, January 7, 2:30 pm: After the John Parrish led walk along the bike path I (Kathy Michels) headed back from Kemp Mill plaza upstream towards my house via the stream wondering why the water was so high and flowing so strongly when there had been no rain in quite a while. I discovered this unbelievably strong and loud torrent discharging from the pipe behind 1613 Ladd St., noted the bucket of D-Chlor and the "teabag" like set up hanging next to(but not in) it, photographed it, then told Ed Murtagh and Doree Huneven to come look (Ed immediately estimated the flow at about 500 gpm; they said they would report it. I went back to my house to report it to WSSC-301 206-4002.

Saturday January 7, about 3:15 pm: Ed was trying to call WSSC at the same time I was and was put on hold for my call - he called them again after I was done. The woman said she had had another call and someone would check into it. I complained that the volume of and the chlorine in the flow was probably damaging the stream and the life in it and needed to be looked at and ended as soon as possible.

Saturday January 7: about 4:30 pm: Doree Huneven told me that WSSC staff did come by but did nothing, not even with the dechlorination tablets, one of the men simply looked, told her and Donna Calacone he was documenting it and generally sounded unconcerned. They left and allowed the torrent of water to continue unabated and fully chlorinated.

Saturday January 7 - late evening: I filled out and submitted an on-line Montgomery County Environmental Complaint Form reporting the discharge.

Sunday , January 8, 2005: Doree Huneven took more pictures and made more phone calls. I took more pictures, then my battery went out. I tried to measure the torrent with a 5 gallon bucket but it was knocked out of my hands. I then put on my hip waders and brought my 70 gallon green rain barrell down there- dropped it into the base of the torrent and timed it filling up (about 5-6 seconds). I then dumped the water and hauled it home.

WSSC has estimated a flow of 50 gallons per minutes for 94.5 hours, a total discharge of approximately 300,000 gallons. My rough estimate would be a flow rate 10 times their estimate and a total discharge much larger than their estimate.

Monday January 9, 9:00 am: Just as I was about to go to work I noticed WSSC staff (3 or 4 men including David Goad who indicated he was the person who set up the flow and teabag chlorination attempt). The flow of water seemed to have increased. They filled the "teabag" with D-Chlor and hung it under the waterfall . David Goad said they had left the bucket and gloves there the previous week because they "didn't think anyone would come by". He acknowledged no dechlorination was occuring under their set-up all weekend. The high volume water discharge blew out the flow diversions DEP had installed to enable planned pond dredging operations.

Monday January 9: I was called by DEP at work indicating they were checking into the problem (they had received my on-line environmental complaint request and an email I also sent to them). Later in the day I was informed of the initial assessment of damage to life in Sligo Creek both below the ponds and between the discharge area and the ponds. See DEP and MDE Reports for those reports.

January 13: I received an MDE report dated January 10 that indicated a major fish and Salamander kill- many recently dead and dying. Chris indicated to me on the phone that the further below University they got the more live fish there were. DEP had sampled above the ponds. I do not know if a follow-up has been done to see if more fish have died since.

Doree Huneven - Contacts and Timeline

Saturday, January 7, 2006 3:40 P.M.: I went to look at the water flow again, this time with Donna Calacone. I took pictures of the site and a short film, showing the volume of the flow, and the entire site.

Saturday, January 7, 2006 4:15 P.M. (approx): A man from the WSSC arrived in a WSSC truck with another person.The arrival of the truck and the two men was also witnessed by Donna Calacone. This man, an African American, around 5'8" tall, slightly stocky, with a WSSC uniform came with me to look at the discharge. He said, "Yeah, this is how it's done. Water is being drained from a tank so it can be used for another purpose." Although the De-Chlor powder wasn't in the bag overhanging the water discharge, he also declared that "that's how the chlorination is removed from the water." He didn't seem alarmed or concerned, or think anything at all was out of the ordinary. After a bit of chit-chat about deer, he got into the truck with the other person and drove away.

Sunday, January 8, 2006 10:30 A.M. I went out to look at the water discharge. The sound was very loud. The creek was high, and a cloudy aqua color. I could distinctly smell the chlorine, and this was very alarming to me.

Sunday, January 8, 2006 10:43 A.M. I called the WSSC emergency number once more, 301 206-4002. I spoke with Sharina. I asked her for her last name, and she said that employees didn't give out their last names, but everyone in the office knew "Sharina." I told her that highly chlorinated water was flowing into Sligo Creek, and that it was very worrisome. She said that "Water is being drained for dechlorination at Wheaton Water Tank into a new hook-up." I pressed her to do something about it, because it looked dangerous for the creek, and there was also the full bucket of toxic De-Chlor on the bank of the creek. She responded that if I wanted to express my concerns further, I should call a Mr. Lwin (spelling?) at 301 206-7331, that she couldn't do anything else.

I immediately called Mr. Lwin and left a message about the very large volume of chlorinated water being discharged into the creek, and asked for action. I left my name, number and address. All through the day, there was no response from him, and the water continued to flow. The sound of it could be heard all the way to Ladd Street.

Monday, January 9, 2006 9:00 A.M.(approx) I went to the creek and found 3 WSSC workers (Mr. Goad and two others, all photographed) The water was still flowing, though it looked as if the volume had doubled. See the photographs below. Shortly after, I understand that the water flow was stopped.

Sunday, January 15, 2006 Morning: I left another message on Mr. Lwin's line (301 206-7331) saying that inaction in stopping the discharge of chlorinated water into Sligo Creek had resulted in the sterilization of the creek for one mile below the pipe, and I was curious if he would even bother to respond to my call telling him this.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006: I received a message from Judy Smith at WSSC, who thought I was the president of the Friends of Sligo Creek, asking for a meeting with myself and other WSSC people. I gave the message to Bruce Sidwell on Tuesday evening, at a meeting of Friends of Sligo Creek.

WSSC staff on the site on Monday morning, January 9 (Kathy Michels in red coat and David Goad in orange jumpsuit)