Essay About Storm Water System And Underlying Design Of The City

Bringing Sustainability to the Washington Mall
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ENVR E-118 (Megan Epler Wood): Environmental Management
of International Tourism Development
Fall 2010
Bringing Sustainability to
the Washington Mall
A Policy Position Paper
Anshu Kar (GRADUATE STATUS); HUID: 50720594
1 Executive Summary
In 2007, approximately 15 million people visited Washington, DC generating over $5.5
billion in revenue while supplying $620 million in new tax dollars to the District. Over 70% of
the land in DC is controlled by the National Park Service and more than 9,000 acres or about
24% is devoted to parks. Therefore, the necessity for a protected and sustainable environment
surrounding the monuments and memorials is of utmost importance to the District. The focus
of this report will be to discuss current and future problem areas concerning the Mall and
recommend policy alternatives.
Current and future problem areas encompass three main issues: 1) flooding and storm
water drainage; 2) transportation and air quality; and 3) service agencies. One-third of DC uses
a combined sanitary and storm water system, which means a single pipe carries both raw
sewage and storm water to a treatment facility. Excess storm water causes untreated
wastewater to flow directly into nearby rivers. Transportation and air quality are only getting
worse. By 2030, the area will have added 1.2 million new jobs and more than 1.6 million
people. Consequently, an already stressed transit system will experience greater problems.
Transit work trips are forecast to increase by 35% as an increasing number of people are
expected to use transit to commute to work. Following the same trajectory, air quality will
worsen and total emissions from energy consumption will increase by 35% by 2030 and 43% by
2050. Finally, to make matters worse, the District has several competing interests and a number
of organizational, regulatory, and agency hurdles to overcome. No one agency in the District
has supreme responsibility over any singular issue.
Policy alternatives focus on moving the District towards sustainable urbanism, or drawing
upon the underlying design of the city to make visual and physical connections to these
destinations, promote livability through the treatment of public space, and compact land use.
Specifically, three strategies have been presented the District can adopt to balance the needs of
the built and natural environment around the Mall, they are: 1) improved flood prevention and
storm water control; 2) improved transportation and land use; and 3) improved electricity
efficiency. Instituting these recommendations will help move the District further along the path
towards sustainability at the Mall.
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