Nearly 10 Percent Of Hydrants Don't Work, Union Says

"It's a work in progress," Johnson said of the mapping system. "It would not surprise me if there may be some that are not in there. Others are on private property."

WASA is working with the fire department to test all of the city's hydrants and identify the ones that need to be fixed. The testing started last year, but it was put on a faster track after the Georgetown fire. No one was hurt in the blaze.

Testing the hydrants is a time-consuming task, which firefighters have been doing between emergency calls. Large swaths of the city have not been checked.

D.C. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin said firefighters could deal with the situation better if they knew which hydrants were out; some are tagged, but others, yet to be discovered, are not.

Rubin said that in Atlanta, where he was fire chief until earlier this year, about 10 to 20 percent of the hydrants are generally out of service, but he contended that did not cause problems. He said the number matters less than knowing which ones work and which ones don't.

"When we don't know which ones are working, it's kind of like playing Russian roulette," Rubin said. "The biggest issue is when we're completely blindsided."

Johnson said last week that all the testing would be completed by the end of the summer, but fire officials said a more realistic goal is late November.

WASA has agreed to fix hydrants within five days of learning they are broken, and the agency's $26.5 million project calls for fixing and upgrading hydrants to meet national standards. About 3,500 will be replaced in the next five years as the city phases out old ones, some dating from the 1920s.

"It is a very serious matter, not something we would want to understate or play down," Johnson said. "That's why we asked the board to approve $26 million."

The problems once again put WASA under public scrutiny over safety issues. High lead levels in D.C. drinking water posed a potential health hazard from late 2001 to 2004, and WASA was criticized for failing to quickly alert the public. The agency later agreed to replace all lead pipes in the city.

Johnson is the only person to serve as WASA's general manager, having overseen the quasi-independent agency since 1997.

D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), head of the public safety and judiciary committee, has called a hearing for Wednesday to discuss the city's response to the Georgetown blaze and other high-profile fires. He also plans to discuss hydrants, he said yesterday.