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A pipe collapse near the nation's capital sent millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. It is now one of the country's largest sewage spills ever. NPR's Erika Ryan has this report.
ERIKA RYAN, BYLINE: It's a particularly gloomy day in Cabin John, Maryland, northwest of D.C., along the Potomac.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
RYAN: This is the site where on January 19, a 6-foot-wide pipe collapsed. It's part of a massive sewer line known as the Potomac Interceptor. DC Water estimates more than 240 million gallons of raw sewage flowed into the river, most of which in the first five days. A small group of college students and professors are making their way down a trail lined with DC Water biohazard signs.
RACHEL ROSENBERG GOLDSTEIN: I mean, this is not the spring 2026 semester that I envisioned.
RYAN: That is Rachel Rosenberg Goldstein, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. She's a water quality specialist. She's one of the professors testing for bacteria and pathogens. DC Water, which is overseen by the EPA, is also testing the river daily and sharing those results online. But this Maryland group is independently researching their own water samples.
ROSENBERG GOLDSTEIN: We are seeing that E. coli concentrations are decreasing over time, which is great, but we're still consistently finding staph aureus at this site where the spill happened.
RYAN: Students are equipped with rubber gloves and long, retractable poles so they can safely collect water samples.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)
RYAN: UMD is working with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network on this research. The network's president, Becky (ph) Nicholas, says things are looking better today.
BETSY NICHOLAS: It's a significant change just in the color of the water. That kind of gray you see there - I mean, some of it might be 'cause it's a foggy day - but mostly that is an indicator of sewage sludge.
RYAN: Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency to bring in additional federal support. Nicholas says more resources are needed, but...
NICHOLAS: I'm just wondering, why did it take so long? We were getting readings of 12,000 times higher bacteria levels than what's safe for recreation - 12,000. I have been doing this work for most of my career, and I've never seen testing that is that high.
RYAN: The Potomac Interceptor is more than 60 years old. Typically, about 60 million gallons of wastewater travel through it per day. Here's Rosenberg Goldstein again.
ROSENBERG GOLDSTEIN: Unfortunately, as our sewer infrastructure continues to age, and as our infrastructure is stressed by climate change and extreme precipitation, we could see more events like this happening.
RYAN: DC Water spokesperson Sherri Lewis said a 10-year rehabilitation project of the entire system was already underway. This location was actually identified in need of restoration before the collapse.
SHERRI LEWIS: When this occurred, we had a string of more than a week of subfreezing temperatures here, and we had crews working around the clock out on this site, trying to make sure that the pumps were working and, you know, getting that work done.
RYAN: DC Water expects the repairs to the collapsed pipe to be done by mid-March. But this isn't just a regional issue.
MARCCUS HENDRICKS: It shouldn't require an accident of this magnitude to have the resources, plans in place to do better and more resilient infrastructure planning.
RYAN: That's Marccus Hendricks, UMD professor of urban studies and environmental planning. He's also the director of the Stormwater Infrastructure Resilience and Justice Lab. His lab studies environmental impacts of things like flooding and sewage spills, with a particular focus on marginalized communities. He says it's important to think about the root cause of overflows like this one.
HENDRICKS: It's not necessarily a sexy topic to think about, you know, incremental investment and sewer infrastructure. If the toilet flushes, we're all good. But then accidents like this happen, and then all of a sudden, we're reactive.
RYAN: Hendricks adds there's a saying in public health - an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And that concept also applies to infrastructure. Erika Ryan, NPR News, Cabin John, Maryland. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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