Willett Branch testing site. The site is located behind the Bethesda Pool where it comes out from under the Capital Crescent. Most of the creek runs underground in pipes through downtown Bethesda.
Updated December 6 to reflect that the problem has been fixed.
In 2022, our fecal bacteria monitoring program uncovered a serious E. coli pollution problem in the Willett Branch. Our tests found fecal counts more than 50 times higher than the Maryland recommended levels for safe water play. We are excited to announce that the source of this pollution has finally been uncovered. After years of reporting the numbers and working with elected officials, LFWA is proud to learn that our testing efforts and advocacy paid off. The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has identified the source of the fecal matter - an illicit plumbing hook-up at the Hyatt Hotel building in downtown Bethesda is sending fecal matter to the creek via the storm drain system instead of to sanitary waste treatment center.
Toilets have been reconnected properly
From the Kenny Mack, Water quality Specialist, DEP, December 6, 2024:
The cross connection between plumbing lines in the Hyatt and the storm drain have been repaired!
As of late last week, the plumbers had disconnected and rerouted the offending toilets to the correct pipes. Subsequent dye testing has shown the problem has been fixed and the sewage is going to the proper pipe. I've scheduled our consultant to visit the site the week before Christmas to collect bacteria samples from the nearby manholes and the Willett Branch outfall. While I know we haven't solved Willett Branch's problems, I'm happy we've made such a large stride in the right direction.
Thank you for your help and support through this process. You and your organization should be very proud of this win.
Summer 2024 Weekly results for the Willett Branch. The Maryland State threshold for safe water play is 410 MPN. Our tests cannot count more than 24,915 MPN, so we don’t really know how high the numbers were some weeks.
How long has the problem existed?
Plumbing hook-ups are done when the building is constructed. The building in question has been there at least 30 years, so probably that long. And, without LFWA testing, it most likely would have continued to be undetected.
How does the Fecal Pollution get to the Creek?
In Montgomery County, waste water (the stuff in the toilet) goes to the sanitary treatment facility and stormwater run-off goes to the creek. So, when plumbing is installed in a building, care has to be taken to make sure that the waster water isn’t being connected into the storm drain pipes. (Large buildings typically have a storm drain pipes to take the water from the roof directly into the storm drain system.) If the pipes are improperly connected, the waste water goes to the storm drain system where it runs directly to the creek.
The County can test for illicit hook-up by putting dye into the toilets. If they see the dye in the storm drain system, they know there is a problem. They also pull the storm drain covers in dry weather. If there is water in the storm drain, then there is most like an illicit hook-up. In this case, there were hundred of storm drains to check and thousands of possible toilets. By luck, they were able to narrow down the source by finding a pipe that was discharging wastes into the storm drain. They were then able to send cameras down the pipe to see where the fecal matter was entering the system. Once they identified the building, the dye testing was done to confirm the illicit hook up.
Testing was done on the Willett Branch behind the Bethesda Pool. The illicit hook-up was found in downtown Bethesda over a mile from the testing site. The creek runs underground through much of downtown Bethesda and is connected to the pollution site through the storm drain system.
Thank You
We need to thank Delegate Marc Korman for his role in helping us find the right people to investigate the problem. And also the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection for staying on top of it. It’s over a mile of underground piping between the Willett Branch where we tested the creek for fecal matter and the building in downtown Bethesda where the toilets were dumping into the storm drain system so they had a lot of ground to cover before finding the illicit hook-up.
Most of all, we need to thank our team of Citizen Scientists who tested every week all summer long to give us this information. It’s because of them that we can do this work and find these problems.
Learn more about our Fecal Bacteria Monitoring Program HERE.