Photo by yakfur

You think WMATA employees are ready for 2009 to be over already? Adding to the list of big-time trouble its already had this year, the transit agency has just been criminally charged with dumping hazardous waste into the sewer system at New Carrollton and Branch Avenue in 2003, the Washington Post reports. This sort of case is almost unheard of.

The criminal claim against the quasi-public agency is extremely unusual, and a search of federal and state court records revealed no other such cases. It is not clear why prosecutors are pursuing the case six years after the alleged violation.

According to court documents, polluted water left over after Metro cars were washed at the New Carrollton and Branch Avenue rail yards was released into sewer pipes without being properly treated. A contractor hired in the mid-1980s to clean the cars used chemicals including hydrofluoric acid, “an extremely corrosive and hazardous chemical know for its ability to dissolve metal oxides,” prosecutors wrote.

WMATA told the Post that it stopped using hydrofluoric acid in 2003, but it remains to be seen how and whether this case could end up playing out in court.