Potomac sewage spill focus shifts from repair to cleanup

Federal and local officials including DC Water marked Tuesday the completion of initial repairs to the underground pipeline responsible for spilling hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater and raw sewage into the Potomac River.

Now, the monthslong cleanup can continue.

“Together, we fixed what was broken,” DC Water CEO David Gadis said. “Now, we move toward the rehabilitation on what was impacted.”

On Saturday, DC Water engineers turned off the massive pumps that had been diverting millions of gallons of sewage a day into the C&O Canal and reopened the underground pipeline that collapsed in mid-January, sending hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage into the Potomac River.

“By restoring the flow this weekend, we no longer need the canal bypass that was created on Jan. 24,” Gadis said. “That bypass … kept close to 2 billion gallons of wastewater from reaching the Potomac River.”

The National Park Service plans to open Violette’s Lock upriver from the spill site to help flush out the canal. Cleanup and restoration of the area is well underway, officials said.

“We have completed emergency remediation activities,” said Col. Francis Pera of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”

“You’ll be hard-pressed to find a spill along that footprint,” he said.

Gadis praised the effort.

“Heavy snow, bitter cold, long hours — nothing deterred our crews and contractors,” he said.

The remaining cleanup and permanent repairs to the pipeline are expected to take several more months. While restrictions have been lifted in Virginia and D.C., Montgomery County, Maryland, is still telling people to avoid contact with the river.