CONTACT: Julia Robey Christian, PIO, (202) 741-0842 desk, (202) 450-7878 cell, [email protected]
Real estate owner, developer, and environmental consultant agree to pay fine for alleged discharge of contaminated groundwater to the District’s storm sewer system and the Anacostia River.
WASHINGTON, DC – May 12, 2017 — Real estate owner, BIT Investment Fifty-Eight, LLC (BIT) and Developer, TC MidAtlantic Development IV, Inc. (TC), and environmental consultant, ECS Mid-Atlantic have reached a settlement with the District’s Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) over environmental infractions related to the property located at 500 D Street SW. The entities have agreed to pay a fine of $37,500 to the District for the alleged unpermitted discharge of groundwater containing oil and grease in concentrations exceeding the District’s water quality standards from the sub-slab drainage system and groundwater management sumps at the property into the District’s municipal separate storm sewer system (“MS4”) and ultimately the Anacostia River.
In the settlement, DOEE alleges that discharges of groundwater containing chemicals in concentrations exceeding District water quality standards into the MS4 occurred on one or more occasions from the property’s groundwater management system, between April 2015 and March 2016. DOEE further alleges that the parties, on more than one occasion prior to the date of the settlement agreement, had failed to provide the Department with timely notification of the discharges that exceeded the water quality standards.
In addition to the fine, the parties have also agreed to notify DOEE within 24 hours of the discharge of any effluent that exceeds the District’s water quality standards from the groundwater management sump and treatment system at the property. The parties submitted a work plan to implement a treatment system for groundwater discharges that was approved by DOEE, and have continued to operate the treatment system and conduct discharge sampling and provide the results to DOEE.