The head of DC Water, whose agency oversees the sewer line that collapsed and spilled more than 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River last month, previously played a prominent role in the Flint water crisis.
DC Water hired David Gadis in 2018, even though he was a senior executive at Veolia North America, an engineering firm that later paid $53 million to settle civil claims alleging it contributed to and prolonged Flint’s lead contamination disaster.
Three years before Gadis was hired by DC Water, Veolia North America was hired to assess Flint’s failing water system. At the time, residents were complaining about foul-smelling, discolored water. The city had switched to the Flint River in April 2014 without proper corrosion control, allowing lead to leach from aging pipes into homes.
In February 2015, Gadis, then vice president of Veolia North America’s municipal and commercial business, issued a public statement after Flint retained the company.
“We are honored to support your community with our technical expertise so that together we can ensure water quality for the people of the city of Flint,” Gadis said in a news release.
Veolia was tasked with reviewing treatment processes, laboratory testing, and engineering reports. The company said its analysis would take less than two weeks.
In March 2015, Veolia issued a report stating that a review of records indicated compliance with state and federal drinking water standards and that the water met regulatory requirements under those standards. The report blamed widespread complaints of discoloration primarily on iron in aging pipes and suggested treatment adjustments.
Months later, independent researchers found elevated lead levels in children. Flint’s water crisis became a national scandal, triggering criminal investigations, civil litigation, and billions in infrastructure and settlement costs. It was one of the worst drinking water disasters in modern American history.
In consolidated federal lawsuits, Flint residents alleged that Veolia failed to properly identify or elevate the lack of adequate corrosion control, the core failure that allowed lead contamination to worsen. The complaints pointed to Gadis’s public statements as evidence that officials and consultants projected confidence in the system even as residents were being exposed to unsafe water
Veolia denied wrongdoing, arguing it was hired for a limited operational review and was not responsible for the city’s corrosion control decisions. In 2024, the company agreed to a $53 million settlement with the state of Michigan while denying liability.
Now, as CEO of DC Water, Gadis oversees the regional sewer system that includes the Potomac Interceptor, the massive pipe that collapsed in January along the Maryland side of the river. The failure allowed untreated wastewater to spill into the Potomac for days before emergency bypass pumping reduced the discharge.
DC Water has described the incident as a major infrastructure failure involving an aging sewer line.
Whatever the case, a public utility chief who once publicly pledged that outside experts would help fix a failing water system is again leading an agency facing scrutiny over infrastructure failures.