Why Does Alexandria VA Hate the Bay?

Potomac River sewage puts Alexandria in crosshairs

Alexandria’s efforts to address its long-standing sewage discharge into the Potomac River should be addressed by mid-2020, or the city will risk losing all its state appropriations, under a bill that passed a Virginia Senate committee Thursday.

The legislative action is far from complete — the bill must be voted on by the full Senate and then survive scrutiny in the House as well — but Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) said that he and several of his colleagues believe the city “has the financial capacity to fix these problems, but it’s dragging its feet.”

Alexandria is under a federal order to stop allowing sewer overflows into Hunting Creek, a Potomac River tributary, and it has given the state a $188 million plan for how it will do just that. But half of the raw sewage — about 11 million gallons — that the city sends into the Potomac each year empties into the Oronoco Bay in North Old Town, and no federal or state order demands that be stopped.

Nobody want to fix anything until the pressure is on.