For all the latest developments in Congress, follow 麻豆官网 Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller at Today on the Hill.
A congressional hearing will be held Wednesday on January’s massive sewage spill in the Potomac River and will include testimony from several key officials involved in the cleanup, project renovation and efforts to protect public health.
Among those scheduled to testify is David Gadis, CEO and general manager of D.C. Water, who has sought to reassure the public his agency is doing all it can to move forward with repairs and monitoring of the river.
“The incident did not occur because D.C. Water ignored infrastructure challenges,” Gadis said in prepared testimony. “Rather, it occurred within one of the nation鈥檚 oldest and most complex wastewater systems, a system D.C. Water has spent decades modernizing, rehabilitating and improving for the benefit of the region and the environment.”
The hearing is being conducted by the House Emergency and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
The spill, involving a system known as t, took place in January, dumping hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac.
It occurred when a large pipe burst near the C&O Canal in Cabin John, Maryland.
People who live in the area complained during a Glen Echo Town Hall on Monday night that they can still smell the sewage.
One man said, 鈥淚 always open the window and it鈥檚 putrid!鈥�
Gadis spoke to area residents at the meeting in Glen Echo on Monday.
He and several other top administrators will testify before lawmakers Wednesday.
The first part of the House hearing will include testimony from the following:
- Jessica Kramer, assistant administrator, Office of Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Col. Francis B. Pera, commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District
- Edward Wenschhof, acting superintendent, Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior
Gadis will testify in the second part of the hearing, along with Tom Neltner, national director at Unleaded Kids.
The hearing is expected to look back at the response, but also look ahead to preventing spills in the future.
The hearing is entitled, “Corrosion, Collapse, and Clean-Up: Examining the Potomac Interceptor Collapse.鈥�
D.C. Water is conducting daily water quality testing at 10 sampling sites through July 5.
It then plans to carry out weekly testing through Sept. 10.
D.C. Water has sought to keep the public informed about efforts to address the spill, .
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