The District of Columbia Water & Sewer Authority (DC Water), has voted to remove CEO and General Manager David L. Gadis, NBC4 Washington reported.
DC Water has yet to formally announce the decision, but reports have speculated that Gadis’ removal stems primarily from his overseeing of the collapse of the Potomac sewer interceptor in January. The collapse led to hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage spilling into the Potomac River.
DC Water owns and operates the Potomac Interceptor, a 54-mile regional sewage pipeline that carries approximately 60 million gallons of wastewater daily from hundreds of thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses across portions of Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C.
Maintaining the Interceptor and related infrastructure in good working order is a condition of DC Water’s Clean Water Act permit.
The interceptor collapse caused at least 240 million gallons of untreated sewage to enter the Potomac River over a roughly 10-day period beginning on Jan. 19. DC Water and its contractors managed the emergency repairs to the pipeline and wastewater flow was restored on March 14.
Remediation activities were led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), National Park Service (NPS), and other federal partners. All environmental remediation activities were concluded by May 6, EPA said.
The DC Water Board of Directors had approved a two-year contract extension for Gadis in November 2025.
Gadis first joined DC Water in May 2018 where he oversaw a $1 billion dollar annual budget and led a workforce of approximately 1,200 employees. He previously served as executive vice president of Veolia North America and as CEO and President of Veolia Water Indianapolis.
Leave a Reply