Last month, I wrote the following about the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC):
…If this agency is not reformed one way or another, things are going to get a lot worse. And then more pipes – and tempers – will explode.
I could not have imagined how soon – and how spectacularly that would come true!
Yesterday’s life-threatening pipe break, in which the “road literally exploded,” was the most predictable disaster in Montgomery County’s history. Last summer’s giant pipe rupture in Derwood, which shut down most of the county’s restaurants for days, was supposed to be a wake-up call. But no one woke up! WSSC is in exactly the same dysfunctional condition that it was then, perhaps even worse.
Someone needs to take responsibility for this mess before people are actually killed. Here is what needs to happen so that WSSC can someday be an agency worthy of the taxpayers.
1. The WSSC Commission, comprised of three members from Montgomery County and three members from Prince George’s County, must hire a new General Manager. The position has been vacant for almost a year(!)
2. The Commission must pass a capital plan to finance reconstruction of the pipes. They could not do so last February and the issue has festered ever since.
3. If the Commissioners cannot accomplish both of the above items in two weeks, County Executives Ike Leggett and Jack Johnson must dismiss the entire board and replace them. Every single one of them.
WSSC has been allowed to rot in its petty and destructive internal politics for at least a year. That must end as soon as possible. Or there are going to be more disasters, more “tsunamis” and ocean-style rescues, and possibly even loss of life.
FIX THIS NOW!