If approved, Pepco estimates that residential customers would see an increase of $4.36 a month.

“They put a couple of pennies in front of us, but meanwhile they’re reaching deep into our pockets,” says Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh.

Remember last week, when the Washington Post reported that Pepco had received several million dollars more in federal tax credits over the past few years than it had paid in taxes?

About 98 times a year, the District gets enough rain that its aging combined sewer system overflows, dumping roughly 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater in the Anacostia and Potomac rivers, as well as into Rock Creek. But today, D.C. Water broke ground on a $2.6 billion project that will all but eliminate the overflow, making area rivers and the Chesapeake Bay significantly cleaner in the process.

At some point in 2012, 10 cultivation centers will start growing marijuana as part of the District’s long-awaited medical marijuana program. As we’ve written before, what with application fees and security plans, it won’t be a particularly cheap undertaking. Now would-be cultivators may have one more thing to worry about — their electric bills.

In order to comply with proposed regulations requiring it to reduce the frequency and length of outages, Pepco wants to raise rates inside the District. But the much-maligned utility is experiencing some pushback from the city’s Office of the People’s Counsel, which has filed a motion with the District’s Public Service Commission to dismiss the utility’s request to raise rates.

If you’re reading this right now and you live inside the District, you probably get a friendly visit in your mailbox (or your email inbox) from a Pepco bill every month. But even among an ocean of cable, internet, gas and cell phone bills which are bloated with all kinds of taxes and surcharges, Pepco’s billing stands out. The news that the D.C. Public Service Commission has rejected the utility’s request to add a proposed 15th surcharge to District customers’ bills is incredibly good news — as much for customers’ ability to read and understand their bill as the small savings that it may mean.

As far as D.C.-based public information videos go, D.C. Water’s new Wendy the Waterdrop clip is already near the top of the heap. (At the very least, Wendy is way, way better than WMATA’s Second Lifers whose dialog is no better than a low budget Italian horror flick dubbed with speech software.) Today, Wendy has a hard-hitting chat with Rich Giani, D.C. Water’s Water Quality Manager, in which Giani explains why D.C.’s water sometimes appears discolored coming out of the tap.

DC Water released a workzone alert this afternoon stating they would be replacing water main valves between Euclid and Kalorama Streets on 16th Street NW, beginning at 7 p.m. this evening. If you live in the area, your access to water could be limited for — wait for it — “2 to 10 hours.” Yowza. But our friend Sommer Mathis says neighborhood residents shouldn’t fret too much: “While digging will start at 7, water in…

Several street closures are in effect this morning in Foggy Bottom due to a water main break in the area. Two westbound lanes on Pennsylvania Ave. NW at 20th Street are closed, as are parts of I Street between 20th and 21st NW, and all southbound lanes at the intersection of 21st and K streets NW. Authorities expect the general vicinity of 21st Street between K and Pennsylvania to remain a mess throughout the morning….