What's New

• Save the date! The annual CSO Workshop has been scheduled for April 21-23, 2010. For more information click here. The registration form is here.
  
  
• Check here to see CSOs in the News. This section of the website tracks CSO news articles of interest nationwide. Also, our CSO Page has links to several communities' CSO homepages.
  
  
• DC WASA Recognized for Efforts to Improve the Anacostia, 4/21/09
  Agency General Manager Recognized for Years of Work to Control Water Pollution
  

  "It's amazing when you can do the right thing and get an award for it," said DC Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) General Manager Jerry N. Johnson. The outgoing agency chief received a plaque from the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS) acknowledging his leadership in reducing wet weather overflows in the Anacostia from the District's combined sewer system.

  The presentation was made by Col. Peter Mueller of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Saturday April 18, 2009 during an Earth Day rally at Bladensburg Waterfront Park for the 15 th Annual Anacostia River Clean Up & Earth Day Celebration.

  The 176-square-mile Anacostia is a slow-moving waterway that begins in Maryland and flows through the District and into the Potomac River, a tributary feeding the Chesapeake Bay. DC WASA budgeted $196 million for improvements to a number of pumping stations and tide gates and for small sewer separation projects, all to reduce sewer overflows to the Anacostia by approximately 40 percent.

  "Although we are extremely proud of this achievement, the road doesn't stop there," Johnson said. "The effort continues with a $2.2 billion DC WASA combined sewer overflow (CSO) program to reduce these wet weather discharges to the Anacostia by a total of 98 percent over the next 15 years. This is a commitment that we've made to correct a long-standing problem in the District of Columbia," explained Johnson.

  Also commenting, James Connolly, Executive Director for the Anacostia Watershed Society, said, "We are very pleased to have the opportunity to work with DC WASA on the retrofit of the District's CSOs. Jerry Johnson has done a tremendous job to achieve the reduction to date and in leading the planning and groundwork for the remainder of the projects. These steps are dramatically improving the health of the Anacostia River."

  DC WASA also operates two skimmer boats that pick up approximately 400 tons of trash and debris annually from the District's rivers.  DC WASA is only one of several partners, including the District and Maryland, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, AWS and a number of environmental organizations, working to make the Anacostia a better river.

  "It's this kind of partnership that gets things done," said Johnson.  "Let's keep the 'good fight' going." Saturday's rally culminated a half-day Anacostia River cleanup, organized by AWS at 19 sites in the District and Maryland.
  

• Click here for May 2008 EPA CSO Webcast Materials on CSO LTCP Development
  
  
• 6/2/08: 5th Circuit Dismisses Citizen Suit Based on Consent Decree Between Dallas and EPA. See the WWP analysis here.
  

• 4/3/08: WA State Case Holds Stormwater Must Meet WQS. Click here for the decision.
  
  
• DC WASA Permit Appeal update: EPA Environmental Appeals Board rules that State compliance schedule requirements are binding on EPA and that EPA cannot change permit language that was not identified in a public notice or which is not a logical outgrowth of public comments. Read more…..
  
  
• Sample rainleader disconnect ordinances for several communities have been added here.