“The environmental impact will be too great.” That’s how a National Park Service official justified delays to a maintenance project for a D.C.-area sewer line in September 2021. Those delays set the stage for that pipeline to rupture in January of this year, resulting in one of the largest wastewater spills in U.S. history.
Rarely has there been a clearer example of lengthy environmental assessments undermining their own purpose. Instead of protecting ecosystems, the bureaucratic holdups led to up to 300 million gallons of raw sewage spewing into the Potomac River, threatening wildlife and posing health risks.
The incident initially raised questions about whether D.C. Water, the public utility that owns and operates the pipe, failed to properly manage its infrastructure. But a new Post investigation underscores that federal officials erected barriers preventing the aging line from being repaired.
D.C. Water first requested fast-tracked approvals for the fixes in October 2018 after inspections found extensive corrosion and settled deposits in multiple parts of the pipe, which runs under federal parkland in Maryland. The utility sought to complete the project by 2022. Instead, the pipeline degraded for years as officials quibbled about the review process.
A spokesperson for the Park Service deflected blame for the delays, explaining to The Post that “the project scope and design changed over time … and that is set by D.C. Water.” There is some truth to this: The utility underestimated the impact that its plan would have on vegetation in the area. Federal officials worried that the project would harm endangered bats and a threatened blue wildflower in the area.
But D.C. Water offered ways to mitigate that damage, such as by cutting down trees in the winter when the bats wouldn’t be active. It also promised to replant the wildflower once the project was completed. Yet Park Service officials wouldn’t budge.
This story encapsulates the bureaucratic absurdities that too often stymie essential projects. In 2020, the first Trump administration implemented reforms requiring environmental assessments to be completed within a year. Did the Park Service miss that memo?
Such red tape is aggravating when it slows down the construction of a highway or the development of an energy project. But the Potomac disaster shows how excessive regulations intended to protect the environment can also directly threaten it.
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