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Anacostia High School students were dismissed early at noon on Monday due to a sewage spill that flooded the school over the weekend.
Anacostia High School students were dismissed early at noon on Monday due to a sewage spill that flooded the school over the weekend.
In a letter sent home to families on Monday, Principal Kenneth Walker wrote that while work was underway for DC Water’s Capital Improvement Program in the area, a water and sewage backup occurred, pumping raw sewage into the school and at least 10 nearby homes on Fairlawn Avenue SE.
A spokesperson from DC Water told WTOP in an email that the incident occurred on Sunday “due to a pump malfunction during work on the Anacostia Main Interceptor.”
“We deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused and are providing temporary housing for affected residents while the cleanup is completed,” they said. “Additional steps are being taken to investigate and address the cause of the pump failure and prevent future issues.”
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom Donohue said in a video on Facebook that at one point there was over six feet of raw sewage inside one of the school’s elevator shafts. He pointed out that the basement of the school flooded, as well as its cafeteria and kitchen.
“This will be sanitized and cleaned. All the stuff that had touched boxes or anything that could have seeped the spores of the sewage will be thrown away. It’s a lot of work to do,” Donohue said.
In the background of the video, Walker can be heard saying that students were to be evacuated and would receive their phones and eat lunch outside.
The school was cleared to remain open on Monday with the kitchen and cafeteria out of service, but school leaders made the decision to dismiss students early due to “lingering odors in the building.”
The school’s day care and after school services and activities were also canceled and closed. The school remained closed on Tuesday.
At a community meeting on Tuesday night, Donohue confirmed to WTOP that Anacostia High families received word that students will return to classes but at nearby Kramer Middle School at 8:15 a.m.
“This will be a significant shift in our learning environment, so we have worked alongside Kramer’s school leader, Principal (Katreena) Shelby, to plan and ensure a successful day for all our scholars,” Principal Walker wrote in an email Tuesday night.
SERVPRO services were contracted to clean, disinfect and dry out the impacted areas of the high school. Walker added that contractors from the Department of General Services and officials from DC Water are using air scrubbers and dehumidifiers to “remove excess moisture … and mitigate odors in the building.”
Once the cleaning and sanitization is complete, they will conduct air quality tests, Walker wrote.
“We remain eager to return to our building as soon as we receive the all-clear to do so,” he said.
Alan Salas, a project manager and civil engineer with DC Water, also spoke at the Tuesday night meeting, sharing information about the Fairlawn project. He said the pump failure is still under investigation.
“That’s part of our planning, to make sure that nothing like this occurs. But it seems that we still don’t know what the issue was,” he said. “For some reason, those pumps didn’t turn on.”
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Ciara Wells
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