“Dear PoPville,
I am writing to share an unfortunate experience currently plaguing several residents of the 1400 block of Florida Ave NW, which up until this week has been a work zone for the Northwest Boundary Sewer Rehabilitation Project. The project came with the headaches of a significant infrastructure improvement project in the middle of a busy city (lots of noise, loss of street parking for residents, major traffic snarls on what is already a major thoroughfare for regular traffic as well as emergency vehicles), but residents of the area had been able to tolerate the disruptions and coexist peacefully with the crew.
Until June 22.
Throughout the project the contractor engaged by DC Water to do the work had a crew at the site around the clock to monitor the system of underground pumps and an above ground sewer bypass system they’d put in place while the sewer was repaired. On the night of June 22nd, there was a rainstorm in DC, and the work crew went to their trucks, to sit out the storm. Which is where they sat while the bypass system they were there to monitor failed, causing the street and 13 residences to be flooded with sewer water.
Flooding levels in our homes ranged from a few inches to five feet in the worst cases. The contractor and DC Water immediately provided a letter accepting responsibility, and sent remediation crews to dispose of our damaged furniture and appliances, tear out destroyed floors, plumbing, electric and drywall, and sanitize and dry out the contaminated areas with industrial humidifiers. In cases where tenants in rental properties were displaced, they have been footing the bill for them to stay in hotels until their living spaces can be made safely habitable.
While we were certainly not pleased to have been impacted in this way, we were appreciative of an immediate response. That dropped off dramatically once DC Water and its insurer took lead. Now that portions of our homes have been gutted to mitigate further damage, we move to the assessment and compensation phase, where we have been told that we will be compensated for the depreciated value of what was destroyed, to include the building construction itself. That means that, if our drywall, floors, etc. had to be torn out, we will receive compensation for their depreciated value, not what it will actually cost us to replace them. That means that DC Water intends to compensate us at a fraction of what it will actually cost us to repair the damage that they themselves caused and accepted responsibility for. In an internal email that one of our residents was inadvertently copied on, the DC Water Risk Manager demonstrated a callous lack of regard and care for the residents that were impacted, as though the expectation that we simply be made whole was unreasonable and greedy. Just sharing this for the awareness of DC residents that live along the work route – I sincerely hope other residents don’t have an experience like ours.”