Smelly canal marks return of summer

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

It’s a sure sign of summer when park visitors complain about the smell of rotten eggs wafting into the air from sewer vents that run along a 12-mile section of the C&O Canal Historic National Park in Potomac.

But this summer may mark the end of that noxious tradition.

This fall, construction is slated to begin on small, brick structures equipped with air filtering systems at four of the largest vents, said Roger Gans, manager of planning and design for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DCWASA).

‘‘Design is complete so now we’re trying to get the last permits and approvals completed... before construction begins in the late fall,” Gans said.

The structure designs vary. One resembles a retaining wall while another looks like a traditional river lock house.

But county officials and advocacy groups remain skeptical of the plan, saying the authority has failed consistently since 1999 to correct the vent odors along the 50-mile long Potomac Interceptor sewer line it owns and operates.

‘‘It shouldn’t take seven years to address pretty straight forward problems,” said Montgomery County Councilman Steven A. Silverman (D-At large) of Silver Spring. ‘‘I have no confidence in their timeline. This is a movie we’ve seen before and we all know how it ends.”

But improvements to the line, which runs from Chantilly, Va., along the Potomac River and ends at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C, requires negotiations with four counties and a city.

‘‘We’re trying to get our patents and approvals,” Gans said.

Most of the 46 vents in the park are at ground level and are covered by plants. Since last summer, the authority installed devices inside the vents that contained an odor-controlling gel.

That temporary fix won less than rave reviews.

‘‘I’m still hearing a lot of complaints from park visitors,” said Matthew Logan, president of the Potomac Conservancy. ‘‘We desperately hope WASA begins to take this seriously and stops just paying it lip service.”

The conservancy was one of several advocacy groups that filed a suit against the water authority in 1999, saying it violated the federal clean water laws. However, in 2004 a judge found that WASA was not required to control odors. An appeal is pending.

But even WASA agreed that the permanent structures it hopes to build this fall are needed to clear the air.

‘‘It’s not going to get any better until we do the real improvements,” Gans said.