WSSC seeks public comment on proposed new Damascus Town Center Wastewater Pumping Station

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission is moving forward with a plan to replace the Damascus Town Center Wastewater Pumping Station, and is receiving public comment on the proposal between now and May 4, 2024. As planned, the existing pumping station would be demolished, and a new one would be constructed about 1500 linear feet north of that location at 26701 Woodfield Road. The existing pumping station is now outmoded, the utility said.

The replacement facility would be a wet well and valve vault-style pumping station. It would include an electrical and control building, paving and fencing with an access gate, landscaping, a gravity sewer, a low-pressure sewer force main, a water main, and associated infrastructure to "pump sewage out of the proposed pump station and into the collection system.

Alas, the project plans are not provided online for the public. Instead, they are available for public review in-person at the WSSC at 14501 Sweitzer Lane, Laurel, Maryland 20707 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Monday through Friday. Public comment is only accepted in written form, and can be mailed to Tanweer Baig, 14501 Sweitzer Lane, Laurel, Maryland 20707, or emailed to Tanweer.Baig@wsscwater.com.

Water main break in Derwood

Rising temperatures after the Christmas weekend deep freeze have led to a water main break at this hour in Derwood. The break is right off Redland Road on Grande Vista Drive. WSSC estimates a restoration time of 4-6 hours for the affected customers in that area.

Nighttime noise ahead on Aqueduct Road in Rockville

WSSC water tank on Aqueduct Rd.
in Rockville

The WSSC will be upgrading its water mains along Aqueduct Road in Rockville between Chilham Place and Old Canal Road this winter. To reduce the impact of water loss on residents, the utility will be performing the work at night, between 9:00 PM and 5:00 AM.

The project will take several nights to complete, and will take place this month or possibly into March, depending on weather conditions. As you may know, the WSSC has a large standpipe water tank on the next block, at 8505 Aqueduct Road, so these are likely large and important water connections underneath the road.

Leggett's WSSC nominee sentenced for DWI in 2007

T. Eloise Foster, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett's nominee to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, was sentenced for driving while impaired in Howard County in 2007. She was sentenced to unsupervised probation, alcohol counseling, 10 hours of community service, and fined $200, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Foster was pulled over by a Maryland state trooper on Interstate 95 in Howard in June 2007. She failed several sobriety tests, and was charged. Foster was budget director for the state of Maryland at the time.

Leggett, who was a victim of a drunk driver himself in a 2009 crash, called for tightening drunk driving laws in December 2015. The County Council is scheduled to interview Foster Tuesday morning at 11:00 AM. They are then scheduled to confirm her appointment 55 minutes later.

"The Montgomery County Council joins our Police Chief in calling for the State of Maryland to strengthen our laws against drunk and impaired driving," Council President Nancy Floreen wrote to the Montgomery County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly in February of this year.

Drivers with interesting driving records seem to be joining WSSC often these days. The Washington Post reported that the agency's latest chief was involved in five accidents while driving WSSC vehicles. She totaled one of those WSSC vehicles in a rollover accident on the Capital Beltway, the Post reported.