DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WATER AND SEWER AUTHORITY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
WATER QUALITY AND WATER SERVICES COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Present Board Members
Present D.C. Water Staff
Rachna Butani, Chair
Howard Gibbs
Brenda Richardson
Alan Roth
Keith Anderson
George Hawkins, General Manager
Randy Hayman, General Counsel
Charles Kiely, Assistant General Manager,
Customer Care and Operations
Linda R. Manley, Board Secretary
I.
Call to Order
Ms. Butani called the meeting to order.
II.
Water Quality Monitoring
A.
Total Coliform Rule (TCR) Testing
Charles Kiely, Assistant General Manager for Customer Care and Operations, said that for
coliform testing, D.C. Water had zero positive samples for January and zero to date for
February. Ms. Butani asked if it had been four months with zeros. Mr. Kiely replied yes. .
B.
Lead and Copper Rule Monitoring
Mr. Kiely indicated that D.C. Water provided 50 sample kits to customers and that 16
responded. The samples are in the lab right now and the analysis will not be completed until
the next Committee meeting. He stated that there is no reason to suspect that there are any
issues with them.
III.
Fire Hydrant Upgrade Program
David Wall, Manager of the Distribution Control Branch, updated the Committee on the Fire
Hydrant Upgrade Program. He reported that there were 9,437 public hydrants, with 69 out of
service due to defects and 60 temporarily out of service due to construction.
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Mr. Wall stated that based on a request from last month’s Committee meeting, they have
provided a detailed map for all of the areas where there are multiple hydrants out of service. He
reported that most of them are on construction sites where the hydrants are either out of service
with another one next to it or the hydrant has been disposed of permanently. Also, he pointed
out the new hydrants that are operating noting to the Committee that the colors and symbols
shown on the maps is an indication that they conform with the National Fire Protection
Association’s (NFPA) standards covering the United States.
Ms. Butani commended Mr. Wall for his efforts and suggested that for future meetings he should
provide the details for only one of the out-of service clusters shown on the map. Mr. Walls
stated that on some of the maps large construction sites are shown and that there is adequate
coverage since there are not many structures existing in the areas. D.C. Water reports the
information to the Fire Department for analysis and determination of the adequacy of hydrant
coverage. Ms. Butani asked Mr. Wall to use his best judgment in determining which cluster
area should be noted in each Committee meeting. .
IV.
Action Items – Non-Joint Use
Mr. Kiely presented three contracts to the Committee for approval. After his summaries on the
need for each, the Committee members agreed to recommend them for Board approval.
Mr. Kiely indicated that they did the vulnerability study as a result of the West Virginia water
safety incident and a request from Ms. Butani. Mr. Kiely indicated that he was going to place
the issue on next month’s agenda and also an update on the AMR AMI system, since it is
getting a little old. A tour of the Aqueduct will also be arranged by the Board Secretary.
Mr. Kiely has asked Thomas Jacobus, General Manager of the Washington Aqueduct, to make
a presentation also.
Mr. Roth stated that a neighbor in his community asked him to raise a question concerning
military installations north of the intake locations and allegedly long ago storage tanks were
buried underground. The neighbor wanted to know if anyone had assessed the vulnerability of,
location of, and condition of those underground storage tanks. Mr. Kiely said that he would
raise the issue with Mr. Jacobus and report back to the Committee. Ms. Butani asked Mr. Kiely
to get with her and Ms. Manley, Board Secretary, to see if it would be possible to have both the
vulnerability assessment presentation and the tour of the Aqueduct done in March.
Ms. Butani asked for a motion to go into the Executive Session pursuant to the Open Meeting
Amendment Act of 2010 to discuss legal, confidential or privileged matters under D.C. Official
Code Section 2-575(b)(4). It was moved and seconded that the Committee go into Executive
Session. A voice vote was taken and the action was unanimously approved. After a roll call by
the Secretary, the Executive Session was commenced.
Following its conclusion, the Committee meeting was reconvened into open session by Ms.
Butani and adjourned.
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