"Another 700 municipalities have similarly antiquated combined sewer systems, designed to overflow into rivers and creeks during storms and heavy rains. Climate change is making the problem much worse."
"For centuries, the Potomac River has helped fuel the nation. Winding 405 miles from West Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay, the river beloved by George Washington has been a source of everything from fish and drinking water for the nation’s capital to a channel for commerce, a defense against the Confederate Army and a backdrop for a thousand tourist photos of Washington, D.C.
But this March, something new emerged from its waters—or, perhaps more accurately, from the earth beneath them. Her name was Hazel. She had been working for 16 months to dig a 2.2-mile-long tunnel beneath the Potomac and the oldest part of the Virginia city of Alexandria to hold sewage.
The city was so excited that it proclaimed April 13 a local holiday in her honor: Hazel the Tunnel Boring Machine Day. Over 1,000 people turned out to celebrate.
If that seems like an odd holiday to observe, it shouldn’t. The massive tunnel engineered by Hazel is just one of the solutions hundreds of communities across the United States have adopted to deal with a relic of the 19th century: combined sewer systems."
Sarah Vogelsong reports for Inside Climate News August 20, 2024.
Advertisement 
