A crumbling sewer infrastructure and a stagnant network of drainage ditches turn sections of Waldorf’s Carrington neighborhood into a virtual swamp, even during last summer’s drought conditions.
Homeowners can’t use their backyards; cars stall-out while crossing deceptively deep puddles on the streets. Insects and bacteria multiply exponentially in the standing water. Decomposing trash and organic debris in drainage ditches and storm drains not only stink; but, out in the open as they are, also attract undesirable quantities of disease carrying vermin.
Among residents, tempers run short and volatile during any discussion of who is officially responsible for the state of the neighborhood and the solution. By their report, Jack and Ellen Briggs alone contacted 37 State, Federal and local entities in an effort to get someone to enforce local health ordinances and make the necessary repairs.
The debate over ownership of the neighborhood’s public drainage areas even has county officials throwing their hands in the air. Despite having all the area’s records at their fingertips, officials at the County’s Nov. 28 presentation to Carrington residents, said they have no idea who has responsibility for maintaining Carrington’s infrastructure. They are, however, certain it wasn’t their job.
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Finding Someone to Drain the Swamp
In response to numerous complaints about the swamp-like conditions, the County Commissioners assured Carrington residents that the County would figure the situation out. Board of Commissioners President Wayne Cooper warned homeowners, at a neighborhood meeting in the summer of 2006, that, “it could take up to a year just to get to the point where we could start work”. A year seemed like nothing after residents had already waited for decades.
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| A resident comments at the Nov. 28 meeting. |
In August 2006, Bob Harrington, county Stormwater Management and Drainage Engineer, slogged through the neighborhood’s problem spots with hip waders and camera to document the extent of the damage. The report was finished in October 2006, but the Commissioners took six months after that to get the issue on the Board’s agenda.
After hearing the report on March 6, 2007, the Commissioners communicated a sense of urgency and importance for a solution to the neighborhood’s problems. To Carrington residents, it seemed like county government was finally on their side and repairs were about to happen.
“I’m certainly g
