Friday: Norton to Join Vice President Biden and Mayor Bowser in Touring Anacostia River Tunnel Project Site
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will tour the Anacostia River Tunnel Project Site in Southeast Washington, D.C. on Friday, January 16 at 1:00 PM, and will be joined by Vice President Joe Biden, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. The project is designed to help keep the Anacostia River clean by providing storage for combined sewer overflows (CSO's), and is part of DC Water's Clean River Program to revitalize and beautify the "forgotten river." Norton secured $14 million in federal funding for the program for Fiscal Year 2015. The Congresswoman strives and usually succeeds in securing these extra funds for DC Water, arguing that the federal government is the biggest user and ratepayer of DC Water. Federal ratepayers include the large U.S. Capitol complex and other federal buildings.
DC Water uses payments from District residents, businesses, and the federal government to improve the 19th century federally built sewer system that the District inherited. Local and federal ratepayers bear the bulk of the financial burden for these projects, but the extra federal payments Norton got in D.C. appropriations helps with that burden.
Congresswoman Norton's Anacostia Watershed Initiative, passed in 2007, required the development of a 10-year comprehensive plan for the restoration and protection of the Anacostia and its tributaries, with the Army Corps of Engineers coordinating with regional partners. This initiative and other Norton provisions were included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (WRDA), and included $55 million for Anacostia river cleanup and DC Water's Clean River Program.
Location: The Anacostia River Tunnel Project Site
2500 Independence Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20003
Live Truck Arrival: 11:30 AM EST
Press Arrival: 12:00 PM EST
Final Access: 12:30 PM EST
Event Start Time: 1:00 PM EST
Press Entrance: From RFK Parking lot 8, you will be directed on site.
Press Parking: RFK Parking lot 8.
Live Truck Parking: Will be directed on site, please meet at RFK Parking lot 8.