What You Don't Know About Water Discharges Can Hurt You: Why Regular Maintenance Is Vital

When several hundred million gallons of untreated sewage began to pour into the Potomac River in January, only miles from the White House, the spill sparked health concerns, alarming headlines and a monumental cleanup that could take months to complete.

The crisis, traced to a collapsed sewer line, also served as a serious reminder for commercial real estate properties to take control of their own effluent — whether sanitary discharges from building operations or rainwater contaminated by exposure to oily parking lots.

“Businesses need to put water treatment control at the top of their list of priorities,” said Chris Magnolia, a vice president and third-generation owner of Washington, D.C.-based Magnolia Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. “By being proactive today, they can avoid expensive problems in the future.”

Local businesses were not responsible for the Potomac spill. But any CRE property — whether hospitality, industrial, office or multifamily — needs to make sure its own containment apparatus, which can include an internal network of pumps, pipes and valves, is kept in working order. 

The consequences for noncompliance include steep fines, lost revenue and negative publicity, particularly if the problem is severe. And yet, not all building operators are aware of the scale of the risks they face.

“Some property managers are on top of it and want to stay green, and so they have maintenance done on a routine basis,” said Joe Rambone, stormwater management estimator with Magnolia. “But when I’m out on clients’ properties, I always try to explain the benefits of staying on top of routine inspections and maintenance.”

Rambone said the motivation to keep in compliance goes beyond avoiding punitive measures. Some municipalities offer tax credits to businesses that adhere to their maintenance plans. 

But unless an operator takes a hard look at their potential water impacts, whether they concern a grease trap in a restaurant’s kitchen or storm drains in a parking lot, they won’t have a true sense of their vulnerabilities or opportunities.

As he’s inspected clients’ properties, Rambone said he’s found that building operators can have two particular blind spots. One is an unfamiliarity with the size and complexity of their water containment systems.

“They might have hundreds of feet of 96-inch pipe buried below their parking lots and no idea what that system is actually doing or why it's there,” he said. “I like to take time to give them a sense of what the system does and the importance of maintaining, cleaning and inspecting it.”

They also might not be aware of the impact a failure in a poorly maintained containment system can have “downstream” on their community. He cited the example of a simple underground sand filter that treats a parking lot’s stormwater runoff. Routine maintenance will ensure it continues to do its job for years. 

But if the filter is neglected and fails to catch contaminants, the property can face an expensive repair bill, not to mention the consequences of untreated water being released into the local watershed. 

“They're sometimes surprised to learn about the impact on the environment when these things are not maintained,” Rambone said. “When a wastewater or stormwater system fails, the waste contaminants that they’re meant to stop will end up in our waterways.”

Magnolia said businesses such as restaurants tend to be savvy about the importance of maintenance since the consequences of a blocked grease trap become evident quickly and may even result in their closing. However, the impacts of a parking lot that is not collecting stormwater effectively might take a little longer to become obvious — and by that time, a small problem has morphed into something more serious.

But no matter the challenge they face, he said, CRE operators should contract with a professional firm that is familiar with the relevant technologies and regulations and can help them head off expensive problems through regular inspections and maintenance.

“These things need to be put on a preventive maintenance schedule, so the worry is taken off their radar,” Magnolia said. “We recognize that people are busy, but if they contract with someone like us, they simply receive a notification when it's time for us to come out and perform that maintenance. I would say that is the most important thing we do as a company.”

Magnolia Plumbing offers other services to help keep a building in compliance and out of trouble. An online portal provides fast access to its inspection and repair history, and includes time- and location-stamped images of its infrastructure. This can serve as evidence of maintenance work performed in the event that local municipal inspectors have questions. 

The firm also hosts on-site lunch-and-learn sessions to educate customers’ teams about their wastewater or stormwater treatment systems and the downstream impacts of poor maintenance.

“Customers often don’t realize the impact they have on local infrastructure, especially in a place like Washington, D.C., where we have a combined sewer system that handles all stormwater and sanitary waste and can overflow into local waterways when there’s a high rain event,” Magnolia said. “When we educate people about this, it goes a long way in getting them to stop thinking of it as an expense to the bottom line and more so a real necessity to protect our environment.” 

This article was produced in collaboration between Magnolia Companies and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.