Feds grant aid to DC as crews make progress on fix of Potomac sewage spill pipe

Efforts to fix the broken underground pipe dumping wastewater into the Potomac River may have turned a corner on Thursday evening.

Crews with DC Water reached the damaged section of the Potomac Interceptor, saying they reached “a critical step in the ongoing damage assessment and repair efforts” as they start to dig out a blockage of rocks that slowed down repair work.

“Crews today are manually digging out the affected area, carefully removing sludge, soil, and debris from the collapsed pipe,” DC Water said in a Thursday news release about the work.

It’s “slow and painstaking” work, DC Water said, complicated by boulders, rocks and the need to avoid causing additional damage to the sewer line.

“Crews are using both manual labor and an excavator to clear obstructions,” DC Water said. Reaching the blockage to begin those excavations was made possible by installation of a steel bulkhead that blocks all flow to the pipe.

That work may be aided by another Thursday development: The Trump administration announced it will grant D.C.’s request for federal aid to help with the sewage spill.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have begun coordinating with D.C. on repair efforts, a White House official told NBC News on Thursday.

The announcement came in a Thursday evening Truth Social post by President Donald Trump. That post began with blame for the spill hurled at Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

“Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland, must get the Toxic River spill fixed, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump said in his post. “The Democrats constantly talk about Environmental Pollution and Protection, and yet, they think it’s OK to have hundreds of thousands of gallons a day of sewage pouring into our Beautiful Potomac River, because they failed to maintain and monitor their own Public Systems.”

“The Governors of Virginia and Maryland must get moving, quickly. If they can’t do the job, all they have to do is call, be polite and respectful, and the Federal Government will handle it, and bill them for services rendered, at a later date,” the post continues. “Muriel Bowser, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., has politely asked that I get involved, so the Federal Government will do that from the D.C. standpoint. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Trump also pointed fingers for the spill at Moore, a Democrat, on Monday on his social media platform, saying that the sewer line breach took place in Maryland.

While the part of the 54-mile-long Potomac Interceptor that collapsed on Jan. 19 is in Montgomery County, Maryland, Moore argued that the pipe is on federal land, and therefore the responsibility of the federal government.

The pipe that collapsed is within the C&O Canal National Historic Park, which is property controlled by the federal government in Maryland, NBC News reports. DC Water owns and operates the Potomac Interceptor, while the Environmental Protection Agency regulates and oversees it.

On Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a local public emergency for the sewage spill in the Potomac — 30 days after the pipe collapse.

The emergency declaration is what allowed Bowser to request a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration, which can bring in the kind of federal support the White House says is being coordinated.

Under her emergency request, Bowser seeks 100% reimbursement for costs incurred by the District and DC Water and also asks for support in other areas, including but not limited to: improving coordination between affected states, D.C. and federal agencies; enhanced water quality monitoring; testing and other preventative measures, according to the mayor’s office.

“We’re not making the request because we believe that there’s any kind of deficiency necessarily in what has happened up to this point,” Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah said. “But regardless of that, we again want to make sure that all of the resources that can be brought to bear in a coordinated fashion, are being, that that is what we’re doing.”

DC Water has received criticism for its slow response and lack of transparent communication over the last month as the spill continues to affect the river.

Since the pipe collapse, an estimated 243.5 million gallons of wastewater has overflowed into the Potomac River, DC Water said in its Thursday news release. Most of those hundreds of millions of gallons leaked during the first week of the spill, which took place in the aftermath of January’s large winter storm.

According to DC Water, no overflows into the Potomac have occurred in the past 11 days.

“Repairs are expected to be completed by mid-March, restoring full flow and function to the Potomac Interceptor,” DC Water says.

Additional work will continue at the site for up to nine months, DC Water said.

The spill has led to dangerous levels of E. coli in the Potomac River and has prompted first responders to adopt hazmat protocols for rescues on the water.