Massive raw sewage spill in the Potomac River

[SADLER] You’ve been to the site. What is the status of this spill right now?

[NAUJOKS] The majority of the spill happened within the first six days. D.C. Water says it’s 243.9 million gallons. We think it’s probably more than that. But at the end of the day, it’s one of the largest sewage spills in U.S. history.

D.C. Water then claimed 100% containment pretty early on. And we were cautiously optimistic, but sure enough, our data showed that there was ongoing releases, from our sampling. And then D.C. Water had to acknowledge — like on Super Bowl Sunday, for example, there was a 600,000-gallon release almost three weeks after the spill.

So right now, thank God for the C&O Canal, because it is serving as a bypass. That pipe, the Potomac Interceptor Pipe, which carries about 60 million gallons a day of raw sewage, is being diverted around the Potomac Interceptor pipe, pumped into the C&O Canal at Lock 14, Lock 13, and parts of Lock 12, and then it runs down the canal into Lock 11, and then right before Lock 10 is diverted back into the interceptor pipe so they can work on fixing that broken interceptor pipe, removed all the boulders and rocks. And that’s going to take another four weeks or so.

And so that is the most immediate concern to us because until that is fixed, that’s where these sewer overflows have continued to happen. But again, we still have concerns about leakage, and our data showing that there’s still really high levels of E. coli at the site. But it does appear like E. coli levels are dropping as you move further downriver.

Obviously, we still have concerns. We want to see this fixed. And we’re just going to continue doing the monitoring, show up at the hearings, and be an advocate for communities downriver that are impacted by this spill.

[SADLER] I live in Fairfax County. I’m on the other side of the Potomac River, on the Virginia side of things. And there was a warning that was issued to the residents of Fairfax County to use as little waste paper that you need — toilet paper that you need — and to stop flushing so frequently, because it is actually Virginia’s waste that’s diverted into Maryland that then goes into D.C. to get it cleaned up. So it really does affect the entire DMV area.

Are you satisfied with D.C. Water’s response? Because you just said this leak started happening and no one was notified — not notified for 25 days, the residents of D.C. and Virginia, that this was even happening, that this was even a problem.

[NAUJOKS] We’ve been frustrated with D.C. Water pretty much from the beginning, because of things that you just emphasize. We were saying all along, why is D.C. Water trying to control the narrative on public health, right? They should be just focused on fixing the pipe. D.C. has a public health department. And then there’s the agency, D.C. Department of Environment Energy.

And, you know, we tried to get a meeting with them within the first week. We still have not gotten a meeting with them. It’s now been over a month since we put in that request. Early on, we were just wondering why is D.C. Water standing in this arena of the public health? They’re the entity that actually caused the sewage spill, right?

They put out information, like on February 5th basically saying that their data showed that water quality met safe recreational use standards. And then they had to retract that because there was ongoing sewage spills. And they then had to report another 600,000-gallon release into the river and that they had misreported their own sampling data. This whole time there’s just been these debacles that have happened. And now it’s been over a month. They’re finally doing the first community outreach. But that public health advisory was issued 25 days too late.

I totally agree with you. And because they finally issued it, then there was the issuance from Virginia Department of Health. That was a 70-mile stretch downriver, which was not based on data, right? It was based on reaction from D.C. It should have just happened in the beginning. And then they should have started coordinating with all the other agencies about monitoring downriver.

And so, you know, this has been, I think, poorly mishandled. Finally, DC DOE has jumped into the fray and started showing some leadership. But we’ve been concerned with D.C. Water having no oversight, and the Environmental Protection Agency is now finally getting involved, a month too late. They should have been investigating the cause of this spill right from day one. They should have been on the scene. They should have been showing some leadership and authority. And what was really frustrating to us is that everybody was deferring to D.C. Water, including the mayor’s office. The mayor didn’t make any public statements about this for a month.

It appears that the public health advisories, certainly below the Woodrow Wilson downriver, like the Virginia Department of Health one that’s 70 miles long, the one that’s in Charles County and further downriver, those are likely going to be lifted. We still have concerns in Montgomery County at the spill site because our data is showing leakage from the canal system into the river, and obviously right down below that to the D.C. line.

We’ve been saying all along, the impact of this spill goes far beyond D.C. Water, D.C. boundary, right? And so we’re really concerned about how this spill — the perception of the spill, at least — has impacted waterman’s ability to make a living, you know, from the river, right?

And then we’re really concerned because bacteria does not thrive well in 40-degree water, that just because the E. coli levels have dropped and the advisories may be lifted, you know, what is MDE — Maryland Department of Environment — going to do if we have massive fish kills or blue-green algae blooms this summer? And that could happen all summer long.