{"id":14612,"date":"2026-01-27T03:45:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/dc-water-continues-efforts-to-contain-sewage-environmental-group-calls-pipeline-break-a-catastrophe\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T03:45:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:45:55","slug":"dc-water-continues-efforts-to-contain-sewage-environmental-group-calls-pipeline-break-a-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/dc-water-continues-efforts-to-contain-sewage-environmental-group-calls-pipeline-break-a-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"DC Water continues efforts to contain sewage, environmental group calls pipeline break \u2018a catastrophe\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Crews with D.C. Water are continuing to try to divert millions of gallons of sewage and wastewater from the Potomac River after the failure of a 6-foot sewer line last week.<\/p>\n<p>The collapse of the pipe, called the Potomac Interceptor, which carries up to 40 million gallons of sewage and wastewater each day, led to crews establishing a workaround involving the installation of pumps and diversion of the waste into the C&amp;O Canal, according to Sherry Lewis, spokesperson for D.C. Water.<\/p>\n<div class=\"Widget WidgetList WidgetRelatedStories alignright\">\n<h3 class=\"Widget-title widget-title-related-stories\">\n\t\t\tRelated stories\t\t<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"Widget-list\">\n<li class=\"Widget-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t<strong class=\"Widget-itemTitle\">Bypass brings DC Water close to containing C&amp;O Canal sewer overflow<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"Widget-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t<strong class=\"Widget-itemTitle\">Sewer line collapse triggers wastewater spill into C&amp;O Canal near Clara Barton Parkway<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"Widget-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t<strong class=\"Widget-itemTitle\">Massive sewage spill flowing into Potomac River upstream from Washington<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>The break occurred in a portion of the interceptor near the Interstate 495 interchange and the Clara Barton Parkway near the C&amp;O Canal National Historical Park.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>&ldquo;This is a dry section of the canal that is contained,&rdquo; Lewis explained.<\/p>\n<p>She said the wastewater is being channeled downstream from the break, and back into the Potomac Interceptor.<\/p>\n<p>By Monday, the crews were able to make significant progress in redirecting the flow of the wastewater, Lewis said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There is some residual wastewater in that area that needs to drain,&rdquo; she added.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis clarified that D.C.&rsquo;s drinking water is not affected by the millions of gallons of untreated wastewater that were released by the collapse of the Interceptor.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The drinking water is safe. There is no impact to it from this overflow,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The primary intake for the Washington Aqueduct&rsquo;s drinking water supply is in Great Falls, so it is not anywhere close to where this overflow occurred.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Lewis said the timeline for how long it might be before the 72-inch pipe could be repaired hasn&rsquo;t been determined.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not an overnight fix when you&rsquo;re talking about a 72-inch, 6- foot-diameter sewer pipe,&rdquo; she said.<\/p>\n<p>While D.C. Water cited progress on stemming the sewage flow in frigid temperatures, Potomac Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks told WTOP, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re grateful that the flow has been reduced, but there&rsquo;s still raw sewage that&rsquo;s coming into the Potomac River.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If this happened in the summer, I can assure you the entire river would be closed for public access and there would be public health notifications,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The National Park Service and D.C. Water have posted signs in the area notifying passersby that raw sewage poses a contamination hazard.<\/p>\n<p>A news release from the Potomac Riverkeeper Network showed what the group called a &ldquo;catastrophic impact&rdquo; on the health of the Potomac River. Testing by Naujoks&rsquo; group Friday showed the presence of E. coli at nearly 12,000 times the amount allowed for safe human contact.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Infrastructure failure is at the root of this disaster,&rdquo; Naujoks said in the news release. &ldquo;The interceptor pipe &hellip; should have been better maintained in order to avoid this catastrophe.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>D.C. Water issued a statement saying it&rsquo;s allocated $625 million in its Capital Improvement Program to rehabilitate the Potomac Interceptor over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>In the same statement, D.C. Water said it&rsquo;s been working closely with federal, state and local partners, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, Washington Aqueduct, D.C.&rsquo;s Department of Energy and the Environment and Maryland&rsquo;s Department of the Environment, among others.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Together, we are coordinating efforts to contain the overflow, monitor and assess environmental impacts, and keep the public informed,&rdquo; the release said.<\/p>\n<p>Source<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>DC Water continues efforts to contain sewage, environmental group calls pipeline break &lsquo;a catastrophe&rsquo;<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crews with D.C. Water are continuing to try to divert millions of gallons of sewage and wastewater from the Potomac River after the failure of a 6-foot sewer line last week. The collapse of the pipe, called the Potomac Interceptor, which carries up to 40 million gallons of sewage and wastewater each day, led to&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/dc-water-continues-efforts-to-contain-sewage-environmental-group-calls-pipeline-break-a-catastrophe\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;DC Water continues efforts to contain sewage, environmental group calls pipeline break \u2018a catastrophe\u2019&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}