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State News Release - October 30, 2002 |
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THE D.C. STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY "Exemption from groundwater discharge fees for downtown building owners is corporate welfare -- and D.C. residents will pick up the bill!" say Statehood Greens. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Statehood Green D.C. Council candidates Debby Hanrahan and Michele Tingling-Clemmons blasted sitting Council members for exempting downtown property owners from having to pay groundwater discharge fees to the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA). "This is corporate welfare," said Hanrahan, who's running for Council Chair. "It's a multimillion-dollar giveaway to AOBA (Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington), one of D.C.'s most powerful lobbies." "Through a combination of resistance to having flutter meters installed on its members' properties and court action, AOBA had been able to block WASA from collecting ground water fees from its members for eight years," Hanrahan explained. "AOBA doesn't want to pay its fair share, and now it has Council's blessing. AOBA's membership is notoriously generous during election years, so it's not difficult to see what's going on here." According to AOBA's own website, "AOBA continues its opposition to attempts by the Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) to require metering of and billing for ground water discharges into the city's sewer system...Our organized and methodical resistance to this ill-conceived program has forestalled its implementation for over eight years now, effectively saving AOBA members millions of dollars in the process." ("What did AOBA do for you last year?" http://www.aoba-metro.org/pressreleases/2001WhatAOBADidForYou.asp ) "While AOBA brags of its power over D.C. Council members, guess who pays the bill?", asked Michele Tingling-Clemmons, candidate for At-Large member of Council. "Residents of the District of Columbia. Even though the rate hike for D.C. residents is relatively small, this is an outrage. It's comparable to the surtax that Council imposed on all D.C. businesses, including struggling local entrepreneurs, in order to finance the the Metro Stop and other infrastructure improvements for the MCI Arena -- while the owner, Abe Pollin, got a huge tax break." Hanrahan also notes that WASA did not seek this legislation, which Council member David Catania (R) introduced in July as an amendment to the Budget Support Act. The legislation not only lets AOBA members off the hook, but exempts other entities, some of which had each been paying thousands of dollars annually in ground water discharge fees, including the federal government, Metro, the World Bank, George Washington University and other private universities, and the Convention Center Authority. WASA's groundwater discharge fees were directed at businesses, apartment buildings, and institutions -- not residences -- whose deep basements capture groundwater, which is then sent to WASA's Blue Plains treatment plant to be processed and discharged into the river. "There was a public hearing on this legislation back in 2000, but Council at that time refused to pass it -- until this year, when no public hearing was held and the legislation slipped by," said Tingling-Clemmons. "This treatment costs money, so Council is sending the bill to D.C. residents, who have no say in the matter. No wonder [incumbent at-large Council candidates] David Catania and Phil Mendelson (D), who voted for it, don't like to talk about the exemption on the campaign trail." "AOBA's exemption will cause environmental damage, because, by eliminating all the ground water discharge fees, a major incentive not to create ground water, by deep digging, for example, has been eliminated," noted Debby Hanrahan. "Our efforts to capture the sewer water overflow will be undermined." "This legislation may undermine efforts by the District of Columbia to
qualify for federal funding," added Michele Tingling-Clemmons. "It needs to
be overturned immediately." |
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