TESTIMONY
of
Catherine Plume
Chair, Sierra Club DC Chapter
before the
Department of Transportation and the Environment Committee
Oversight Hearing for the Department of Public Works
March 9, 2021
I’m Catherine Plume, the Chair of the DC Chapter of the Sierra Club, a lifelong environmentalist, and a 20-year District resident, and now a proud resident of Ward 4. Thank you, Councilmember Cheh, for being a champion of environmental issues in DC.
The Sierra Club is the nation’s oldest and largest environmental advocacy group. We are a grassroots organization with chapters in every state, DC, and Puerto Rico. Here in DC we have 3,000 dues-paying members and more than 10,000 supporters. First and foremost, the Sierra Club DC Chapter wants to recognize the Department of Public Works (DPW) and its entire staff for the hard work and services they have provided and continue to provide to District residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. We commend the DPW first responders for continuing vital DC services during the pandemic. We understand that over 100 DPW staff have contracted Coronavirus, and that as a result, some 500 employees have had to quarantine at some time. When we hear neighbors and listservs complain about a missed trash or recycling pick up, we point out these numbers. We appreciate DPW’s frontline worker commitment to DC.
Our testimony will focus on two aspects of DPW’s work: the DC fleet and waste diversion.
Electric Vehicles and the DC Fleet
DPW manages a large portion of the DC government vehicle fleet through its Fleet Management Administration (FMA). With purchasing power over a fleet of more than 3,000 vehicles, the agency wields great influence on our local environment and vehicle infrastructure. We’ve learned in our conversations with DPW staff that the agency attempts to purchase zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) like fully battery electric vehicles (BEVs) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) for its light-duty fleet. From DPW’s 2020 vehicle inventory report,[1] most of the recent light-duty vehicle purchases consisted of the Toyota Prius Prime, a PHEV. Committing to and sticking with a minimum-ZEV policy is a great first step, and we thank the agency for taking it and for sharing its recent fleet inventory. However, we believe that DPW should take several next steps to put the District on a path towards a clean vehicle fleet.
First, PHEVs work best when operators maximize battery charging. Otherwise, the vehicles will be running almost completely on fossil fuels, which drive climate change and pollutes our local air. Factors that drive the difference between no charging and maximum include adequate charging infrastructure and education. DPW should work with its sister agencies, like DOEE and DGS, to ensure that fleet users have access to EV charging and understand the financial and environmental benefits of maximizing charging. FMA also manages fleet fueling, and it has data that would show how efficiently it is running its rapidly electrifying fleet. However, this data is not publicly available, so we cannot tell if DPW’s performance in this area is good or bad. We request that DPW share its fleet fueling data publicly on an annual basis.
Second, the Sierra Club views PHEVs as a bridge until our infrastructure can support a fully BEV fleet. FMA should be pushing agencies towards BEVs as much as possible and helping get EV charging equipment in place.
Finally, my testimony to this point relates to light-duty vehicles, but most of the government fleet consists of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. As far as we can tell, none of the vehicles managed by DPW are zero-emission vehicles. However, we are excited that last year Mayor Bowser signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 15 state governors committing to make medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sales 30 percent ZEV by 2030 and 100 percent ZEV by 2050.[2] As a large operator of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, DPW clearly has an important leadership role in this area as well. We are eager to hear DPW’s plan to move aggressively towards a fully ZEV fleet.
The District has clear climate targets that require a swift transition to EVs. This requires leadership from the District government. By accelerating the District government’s adoption of ZEVs, DPW will be able to demonstrate leadership and pave the way for a similar transition by private vehicle owners and commercial fleet operators.
Waste Diversion
As you will recall, last year, at a DPW Roundtable organized by this committee in October 2020, the Sierra Club questioned DPW leadership's commitment to waste diversion goals laid out in the District’s Sustainable DC and Sustainable DC 2.0 plan. We noted that our confidence in DPW’s commitment to recycling, composting, and waste diversion writ large was faltering. Unfortunately, our concerns persist. We note:
- In the Fall of 2020 the Director of the Office of Waste Diversion (OWD) was fired for no expressed reason. Annie White championed waste diversion initiatives within DPW that were largely ignored by DPW leadership.
- While DPW now touts the continuation of the Food Waste DropOff programs as one of their successes during the pandemic, we know that it is your office, Councilmember Cheh, that has ensured the continuation of this program while DPW was reluctant to carry it forward. Meanwhile, any hope for a curbside composting program seems to be off DPW’s radar - at least for the near to medium term. And when programs are mentioned by DPW, they preclude any localized program and insist that the only program that would work in DC will involve hauling DC compost to areas outside District boundaries.
- We are very concerned that DPW has put forward a very expensive budget for the implementation of the Zero Waste Omnibus Amendment Act that was passed unanimously by the Council late last year - stating that 12 full time staff would be needed. While this budget was reduced after review, we believe that DPW’s budget for the Act is inflated and exemplifies a lack of willingness to take on the important waste reduction measures covered in the legislation.
- As I noted in my previous testimony, according to the Solid Waste Diversion Report of 2017 (the most recent report available on ZeroWaste.DC.gov), in FY 2017, the Residential Diversion Rate and the Citywide Residential Diversion Rate equaled 22.96 percent and 23.13 percent, respectively. This means that there was only a 1.96 percent increase in DC’s waste diversion rate over a 9 year period - a rate that lags well behind that of many municipalities of similar size.
- Meanwhile, DC taxpayers are not pleased with DPW’s performance on recycling. Councilmember Robert White (D, At-Large) has received many complaints from residents across the District about recycling and waste being co-mingled in trucks. According to a March 1, 2021 letter to the Acting DPW Director which he tweeted, DPW’s response to his inquiries and his own observations have been that these are “isolated incidents”. Apparently, these isolated incidents are happening with some frequency all across the District.
- As you know, Councilmember Cheh, we are strong proponents of a Pay-As-You-Throw program as we know from examples in other jurisdictions that such programs can be both equitable and incredibly effective at waste reduction. We have been told that no municipality on a par in size with DC has had a successful program. This simply isn’t the case. We have repeatedly offered to provide contacts and examples to DPW on this program.
- Finally, we are struck by the differences between the two District agencies that are responsible for ensuring a clean environment. At the recent DOEE quarterly stakeholder meeting, Director Wells specifically told participants “Push us harder!” - encouraging the environmental community to challenge DOEE to take bolder action. Meanwhile, we were dismayed and saddened when the new DPW OWD Director stated at a DPW OWD stakeholder meeting held earlier this year, that “zero waste is decades - decades! away in DC,” dismissing the District’s 2032 zero waste goal of 80 percent diversion.
The environmental community has long made itself, its expertise, and its contacts for waste diversion, including recycling, reuse, and composting, available to DPW. The Sierra Club was pleased to work with DOEE and DPW to spread the word about DC’s straw legislation. Since then, we and other members of the DC environmental community have offered to help with the development of Terms of References (TORs) for contracts and with introductions to waste diversion experts. These offers have not been accepted while requests for information via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have been very slow in forthcoming. While the Sierra Club has a very collaborative relationship with DOEE leadership and staff, our relationship with DPW is not good. We do not feel that the highest levels of the agency have any real commitment to waste diversion.
We note that the DPW Directorship is currently vacant. We have written a letter to the Mayor to thank her for conducting a national search for this position. For too long, the Directorship has been led by committed and admirable civil servants, but not by professionals with professional backgrounds in the many services that DPW provides. We have seen that after many years of struggles, DPW has snow management under control. And as I’ve pointed out today, DPW has the District’s fleet moving in the right direction to electrification. We need aspirational leadership at DPW one whose focus embraces waste diversion. The District is a leader on so many fronts, but our abysmal waste diversion rates are an embarrassment for the agency and indeed for DC.
This concludes our testimony. Thank you for the opportunity to testify at this hearing. Please contact us should you have any questions regarding this document.