Another Sewage Release for WSSC

February is a tough month for Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC). This year excessive rain caused problems. The heavy rains that hit our region 9 days ago caused the sanitary sewer system in Prince George’s County to overflow. The troubles began on February 11th a little before 8 am at the Broad Creek Wastewater Pumping Station at 10315 Livingston Road, Ft Washington, Md. The overflow continued for 5 and a half hours and WSSC estimated that 520,000 gallons of untreated sewage entered a drainage ditch, which flows into Broad Creek.

On the same day, a second sanitary sewer overflow occurred at 14300 Indian Head Highway, near the Piscataway Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Piscataway Plant treats about 24 million gallons of wastewater per day. Due to the heavy rainfall, WSSC reports that extremely high wastewater flows came into the plant. Beginning just after 9:30 on Sunday morning, February 11th, a manhole just off the plant’s grounds began to overflow. WSSC estimated that 951,000 gallons of untreated sewage flowed into Piscataway Creek over a four hour period.

WSSC notified the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Prince George’s County Health Department. Signs were posted to warn people to avoid the area until WSSC was able to clean up the impacted area. This has been a warm February. The coldest days of this winter were earlier- in the first weeks of January.

WSSC has more than 5,500 miles of sewer mains throughout its service area. In January there was an overflow of 117,000 gallons of untreated sewage at the Broad Creek Wastewater Pumping Station in Ft Washington. It was a brief overflow that also impacted Broad Creek. No reason for that overflow was given. That same weekend WSSC crews had to install a temporary bypass to end the Sanitary Sewer Overflow located in Rockville. The overflow discharged an estimated 42,000 gallons of untreated wastewater into Rock Creek before crews were able to bypass the flow. WSSC could give no cause for that overflow.

Though both last February and this year WSSC has had to deal with significant releases of untreated sewage at the Piscataway Plant, winter is usually the time for water main breaks. WSSC crews repair nearly 1,800 water main breaks each year, with most, 1,200, occurring between November and February. Nearly 40% of WSSC water mains are more than 50 years old. In cold weather more pipes fail. There is a relationship between water temperature and pipe breaks. A sudden temperature drop provides a kind of shock to the pipes especially when the pipes are older. Water temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit can also cause pipes to become more brittle, and break. That leads to increased pipe breaks in the winter. For the last decade WSSC pipe replacement program has had more unscheduled emergency repairs in winter. Customers are encouraged to report water main breaks and sewage leaks as quickly as possible.

Remember WSSC’s water and wastewater systems are separate. This overflow did NOT affect WSSC’s drinking water.