Anonymous wrote:It’s not an “issue” that’s 100 years old it’s the system functioning as it was designed to.

Here’s the Maryland plans, you’re welcome. Although I don’t know if there are any local parts of Maryland on combined sewer systems.
https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/water/TMDL/TMDLImplementation/Pages/maryland-s-plan-to-clean-the-bay.aspx

Anonymous wrote:Yes, so most of DC is built on what is called a Combined Sewer System. That basically means the household drains and storm water drains all go to the same place, the treatment facility at Blue Plains, which is a world class facility! The good things about a Combined Sewer are that polluted run off goes to be treated and erosion along the stream is somewhat mitigated. The bad thing is that in heavy rain events, the sewers are designed to overflow into Rock Creek and the Potomac. There’s actually a light by the Thompson boat house that indicates if there’s an overflow happening. But really just don’t go in the creek or river after heavy rains.

The solution is to a) slow down the storm water with rain gardens, etc and b) build giant tunnels to hold water during major rain events and give Blue Plains time to catch up. That’s what the big project is doing.

These aren’t sewage “spills,” they’re by design. You happened not to know about it - that’s because you live in America and you can mostly rely on infrastructure to be invisible and reliable. Your outrage is mostly from being new to the party.

We can thank our local Congressional representatives, several administrations, the EPA and all of the Chesapeake watershed states for the big 2014 agreement to reduce pollutants in our water, which includes the big sewer project that will benefit Rock Creek. Big important things move slowly and aren’t always top of mind.