D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has announced that the Residences at Kenilworth Park, LLC will pay $200,000 and permanently protect wetlands on its Ward 7 property to settle allegations of serious environmental violations during construction of its assisted living apartment complex.
The District accused the developer of illegally draining neighboring wetlands, installing hundreds of unauthorized groundwater extraction wells, and discharging pollutants into the Anacostia River. According to Schwalb, the settlement also requires the company to record a conservation easement to permanently protect the remaining wetlands.
“We will not allow developers to flout District laws and regulations designed to protect our natural resources, nor will we permit them to roll back the hard-won progress we have made toward a clean, safe, and swimmable Anacostia River,” Schwalb said in a statement.
Trey Sherard, representing Anacostia Riverkeeper, said the violations showed blatant disregard for environmental protections.
“Anacostia Riverkeeper welcomes this settlement against a developer who illegally drained and damaged some of the precious few wetlands left in the District,” Sherard said. “To make it worse, they then passed polluted water into the Anacostia River via the storm sewers without treating it or notifying DOEE. That they did so such a short distance from the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens should shine an even brighter light for the public on the continued attacks on our waterways when irresponsible developers flout the law.”
The developer, RKP, is a subsidiary of the D.C.-based firm Gragg Cardona Souadi and owns the assisted living complex at 1650 Kenilworth Avenue NE.
Before construction, RKP pledged to work closely with the Department of Energy and Environment and to protect the property’s natural wetlands. Instead, the Office of the Attorney General and DOEE found that between December 2020 and August 2022, the company violated the District’s Water Pollution Control Act and Well Construction, Maintenance, and Abandonment Standards.
According to investigators, RKP installed 218 groundwater extraction wells without permits, extracting an estimated three million gallons of groundwater each day. The illegal drainage lowered the water table and dried out more than two acres of protected wetlands adjacent to the site. The District also found that RKP exceeded pollution limits at least 50 times while discharging contaminated water into municipal storm sewers and failed to notify or correct the violations.
The company further violated its Wetlands Mitigation Plan by damaging additional wetlands, only partially restoring those that were impacted, and neglecting to record the required conservation easement.
As part of the settlement, RKP must pay $200,000 and permanently protect the remaining wetlands by recording a conservation easement that applies to all future owners of the property.
“This settlement holds RKP accountable for repeated environmental violations during construction,” Schwalb said, “and for failing to abide by the commitments it made to conserve and improve the environment.”