Hundreds of D.C. fire hydrants remain out of order more than a year after faulty hydrants contributed to a blaze that gutted one of the city’s grand old libraries, The Examiner has learned.
At least 208 fire hydrants have quit altogether, D.C. Water and Sewer Authority spokeswoman Pamela Mooring confirmed in an e-mail to The Examiner on Tuesday. Hundreds more are ringed with “maintenance” tags, meaning they need fundamental repairs.
The city water agency has spent at least $25 million since 2006 to replace or repair nearly 40 percent of D.C.’s fire hydrants. The problem was highlighted last year by a fire at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library. Firefighters were stymied in their efforts to attack the conflagration because local hydrants were out of order.
Residents in the Chevy Chase neighborhood have convened meetings and flooded local Internet chat rooms with worries and complaints about the broken hydrants.
“Last year a house in the 3900 block of McKinley [Avenue Northwest] was destroyed by fire in part because the hydrant at 39th and McKinley was not working,” one neighbor wrote on a Chevy Chase chat room. “All the hydrants in our area need to be in top shape!”
Water officials say they’re doing the best they can. Earlier this month, water agency official Alesia Gibbs told Chevy Chase residents on their Web chat room that only seven hydrants in the neighborhood are broken.
Mooring told The Examiner that her agency has made “a sizable effort” to protect the public. She said anyone can get up-to-date information on busted hydrants at dcwasa.com.
The water agency’s public relations effort is lost on D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, who represents part of Chevy Chase.
“Look, you’ve got to do something about this,” Cheh told The Examiner. “Even if it isn’t a public safety problem — and I’m not convinced that it isn’t — people feel insecure about it.”
Cheh has written an angry letter to water agency officials asking for them to explain themselves. To date, the agency hasn’t responded, Cheh said.
“This has been going on for a while now,” she said. “It bothers me, personally, because I’m worried. Why don’t they have a systematic approach?”
