Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[wdcma]

We just had our water line worked on by WASA contractor (Whitehead). As soon as they did, we had water leaking into our house near the area where the water line comes in. There had been no rain, no pipes leaking inside.

The WASA contractor is saying that we are on our own and what they did has no connection. They are saying this without even investigating. We have spoken with the Project Mgr Bill Gladden.

However, when we said we would contact Jim Graham's office, then they called back 10 mins later and said that someone will come out and take a look.

They don't want to act and are looking for any excuse to walk away from it but clearly there is a connection with the water infiltration and their work.

Has anyone out there experienced anything like this and what have they done?

WASA's modus operandi seems to be to shirk responsibility. They hid the lead in water issue under the rug and were forced to deal with it. I am wondering if this same attitude is at work with my situation now and that they won't act unless they are heavily persuaded, lobbied, and bothered every day by my family??

Thanks for any feedback.

Marika

[Tom Bell]

Our experience is now a few years old, but yours sounds very familiar. When the lead in the water story broke, I called DCWater and Sewer to report that we had a lead line (which we could see the end of inside our basement). They insisted that their records showed that our line had been replaced. When our water tested high for lead, they excavated our front yard to find out. Sure enough, the line was lead. Did they replace it when the yard was torn up? Of course not. They filled it back up, presumably correcting their records. Next thing we noticed was sewage backing up in the basement. Assuming that the excavation had broken the soil line, we called DC Water etc. "That would be our contractor's responsibility." I persisted, "I pay my bill to DC Water and Sewer, and on your orders they tore up my yard. Before that, no problem with the sewer line." They came back, tore up the yard again, breaking the retaining wall in the process, fixed the sewer line, and vanished. Having twice gone to the expense of excavating the yard and revealing the pipes, they still didn't replace the lead service line. So, that's our story. It's consistent with your observation that they say it's not their fault, then try to ignore the problem. But if you sound like you mean business, you may get action, though no more than the bare minimum.

[smithdo]

I never got WASA to replace our line, despite what could be as high as 50 phone calls, letters and emails over a 3-4 year period, including working with a reporter from the Washington Post. A neighbor on our block had, according to Jim Graham's office, the highest lead level of anyone tested in the city. Ours was 80% less, but still far above the legal limit. I felt the entire process was broken and WASA had a very serious, very distinctive hostile attitude to its customers and they were completely unwilling to address the lead line replacement by their contractors which we and our neighbors were all too willing to pay for. Consistently we were asked to refile our request in writing only to find we'd be on the books for months and then WASA would say that we were "accidentally" removed from their schedule. If the authorities discovered that WASA acted illegally in this matter, I would not be remotely surprised.

[wdcma]

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

The latest turn of events for us on this - at first WASA wouldn't even do anything and said they wouldn't and that b/c water was inside my house, they said "well, we didn't do any work inside your house so we aren't responsible for that"....

The left us to hang out to dry literally and so we told them we were going to call Jim Graham. Magically, 10 minutes later the same people call back and say they are coming by to take a look.

So WASA visited us this morning and looked all around. They concluded saying it was probably the water table causing water to come in or the sewer line. They said there wasn't much they could do. They did put dye in our toilets and drains to test for a sewage leak. None of the dyed water passed into the house via where the water infiltrated.

Ironically, we had a copper line going to our house so why they had to mess with us anyway, I have no idea. But apparently they had taken out about a 2 ft piece of pipe and replaced it nonetheless 2 days ago.

It was right after they did that, that we had the water coming in.

WASA also said if it wasn't water table or sewer than it was one of our showers leaking. ... Yup everything but them.

We pointed out that what are the chances that there is a problem with any of these things exactly at the same time they come along and mess with the lines.

With the odds so low of such a coincidence, if I good beat those same odds w/lottery tickets I'd be multimillionaire by now and wouldn't even need to post anything here....

So now they are saying that if I want I have the right to make a claim against WASA but they can't say it will go very far.

Jim Graham's office was helpful today in putting us together with some folks at WASA. I was grateful for the contact.

The WASA contact Jim's office put me in contact with had gotten WASA folks back over to the house. But they claimed to have found no leak when I spoke to them.

Mysteriously, though I don't understand why, they went ahead and replaced the water meter this afternoon. I am wondering why....

Am wondering how this water infiltration occurred still -- they took out 2 ft of our service line and it was not anywhere close to our house - so what happened?

If anyone has any insight to share about this we would be most grateful.

Marika