The first major section of a 13.2-mile network of tunnels designed to help manage Washington, D.C.’s combined sewer overflows (CSOs) is taking shape beneath the Anacostia River, as the tunnel boring machine Lady Bird nibbles its way 24,300 lf from the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant to a major pumping station approximately one mile from the U.S. Capitol.
The tunnels are part of DC Water’s Clean Rivers Project, a long-term strategy to bring the District into compliance with Clean Water Act standards by capturing and treating at least 96 percent of the three billion gallons of raw and combined sewage that currently overflows from older sections of the District’s sewer system each year. As each tunnel is completed, overflows will be channeled to the Blue Plains plant, where a new a $470-million state-of-the-art anaerobic digester project is nearing completion.