District awards nearly $1.2 billion to contractor accused of polluting city water

WASHINGTON (7News) — 7News first told you about the District Attorney General suing one of D.C.’s largest construction companies.

The Fort Myer Construction Corporation has been accused of knowingly polluting neighborhood water for nearly a decade. Now 7News has learned that while this was allegedly going on, the County continued to award contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Fort Myer.

The lawsuit against the Fort Myer Construction Corporation (FMCC) alleges that since at least 2015, FMCC has allowed contaminated runoff to enter the area’s stormwater, ending up in the National Arboretum and the Anacostia River.

Read the full lawsuit below:

Trey Sherard is the Anacostia Riverkeeper.

“For a small river, we’re an urban river, we get a lot of pollution, the last thing we need is somebody polluting it,” Sherard said.

7News found the county has awarded nearly $1.2 billion in contracts to Fort Myer since 2012, according to the city’s contracting portal.

“The last thing we need is continued pollution,” Sherard said. “Certainly, we shouldn’t see a company that gets city contracts actively violate the district’s environmental laws and do that.”

The city’s contract website shows Fort Myer was awarded more than $12 million five days after the lawsuit said cameras allegedly caught Fort Myer illegally discharging into county water.

“It should be brown and clear, not brown and cloudy,” Sherard said. “When light can’t reach the bottom, plants can’t grow, and that cuts off the base of the food chain.”

Last month, the city’s contracting website showed FMCC had been awarded more than $33 million in contracts.

7News asked Fort Myer Construction Corporation about the contamination allegations. Here is his answer:

7News also asked the city agencies that gave money to FMCC if they were aware of the city’s violations and the process of vetting corporations before providing funds. They said they could not comment because of the litigation, although the lawsuit did not name names.

7News is still investigating whether the agencies communicated with each other during the process.