New multimillion-dollar firehouse remains empty due to lack of access to sewer

A new firehouse in Maryland remains empty because it lacks access to the sewage system due to lack of power at a pumping station.

When Montgomery County officials drew up plans for the badly needed multimillion-dollar firehouse in Clarksburg, they leased the land and looked at all of the issues they would have to contend with.

County Department of General Services Director David Dise says he had no idea the sewage issue identified more than two years ago would be so vexing to fix.

“We have water to the facility, but I don’t have any sewage services, so I can’t flush toilets,” he said. “No drain or no waste or anything.”

A pumping station built three years ago does not have power because the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission has not been able to get permission from the property owners to run a power line to the pumping station, Dise said.

“Now working with their engineer, a local engineer, we’ve actually managed to get all of the parties to agree where that route needs to go, and it now only depends on about a 200-foot easement going through the Miles-Coppola property,” he said.

That property is between Clarksburg Elementary School and the pumping station.

“The property where the easement is needed involves multiple private owners, located in several states,” WSSC said in a statement. “Working through this acquisition process, we are also exploring interim power solutions to bring the pumping station online as quickly as possible.”

“It is as frustrating as I have ever had on any project to have something that is done that I can’t use,” Dise said.

The firefighters assigned to the Clarksburg station continue working out of a warehouse that was intended to be a temporary location that opened in 2005.

News4 reached out to the company representing the private owners and has yet to hear back.