Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:31 p.m.
A water main break occurred at the corner of 23rd and I streets early this morning. Repairs are expected to be completed by 4:30 p.m. Andrew Nacin/Hatchet photographer
A water main break occurred outside the Foggy Bottom Metro station sometime early this morning, D.C. Water and Sewer Authority officials said Tuesday.
Twenty-third street is currently blocked off to cars between H Street and Washington Circle, where a firetruck is parked to block incoming traffic. Pedestrians can still travel around the site, and the Foggy Bottom Metro station is operating.
The exact time that the eight-inch water main broke is unclear, but WASA safety specialist David Lyles said it occurred before 6:00 a.m. University Police Department officers on the scene said they got a call around 6:45 a.m., though they believe it may have occurred before that time.
According to a GW campus advisory, repairs are expected to be completed around 4:30 p.m. Lyles said it may be hard to estimate the time because the WASA employees will have to break up the asphalt on the street, dig down to the main break, assess the situation and replace the pipe.
Though buses that operate on 23rd Street are currently impacted by the break, the Ross Hall parking garage is open, according to the advisory. It must be entered from the H Street side of 23rd Street and may require GWorld identification. The University parking garage is also open.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 11:49 a.m.
A prominent former professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences was acquitted of allegations that he knowingly misled D.C. residents about the safety of the District’s water, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
In February, Tee Guidotti, a former professor and department chairman at SPHHS, was accused of allowing the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority to influence conclusions he published in the National Institutes of Health journal in 2007 regarding lead in the District’s water. In the journal article, Guidotti said the extraordinarily high lead content in the D.C. water supply from 2001 to 2004 was not harmful, a statement later found to be false.
A panel of scientists reviewing the allegations against Guidotti found that his conclusion was included in his journal article by mistake, and said Guidotti should submit an apology and correction for the false information that was published, according to The Washington Post. [Edit, Aug. 21: The Post also reported that Guidotti's work was conducted as part of a contract between WASA and the University, and Guidotti was not a paid consultant of WASA.]
The panel, headed by three federal research experts, reviewed the allegations against Guidotti and said the e-mail correspondence between WASA and GW proved that WASA “did not intend any interference in Dr. Guidotti’s exercise of complete academic freedom,” the Post reported.
The panel said it found “no evidence on the part of the author to deceive or subvert the publication process,” according to the Post. “However, the Panel feels that the author must correct his failure to substitute key statements in the published paper.”
Guidotti said he took early retirement from GW effective July 1, 2008, and is phasing out his GW career over a year, The Hatchet reported in February.
