President Donald Trump on Saturday approved District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for an emergency disaster declaration, addressing what is considered the largest sewage spill in U.S. history.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that Trump authorized the agency to supplement response efforts due to emergency conditions resulting from the major 54-mile sewer line that collapsed into the Potomac River on Jan. 19. Hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage were released into the waterway when the section of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line collapsed at a point off Cabin John, Maryland.
FEMA’s assistance will cover the nation’s capital and the areas in Maryland and Virginia where the District of Columbia has responsibilities, the agency said.
ENERGY AND COMMERCE REPUBLICANS INVESTIGATE DC WATER OVER POTOMAC RIVER SEWAGE SPILL
The development comes after Bowser on Wednesday evening accepted Trump’s offer to provide further federal assistance, sending a letter to the administration seeking full reimbursement for the money the city and local utility DC Water are spending on repairs to the sewer line. Bowser also declared her own local State of Emergency inside the district on Wednesday.
DC Water says it will take four to six weeks to conduct emergency repairs. The city department estimated the total cost of repair and remediation for the spill to be $20 million.
Within the first five days of the Jan. 19 collapse, the leak sent 250 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Potomac River. The collapse led to a spike in E. coli in the surrounding area, which DC Water initially underestimated by a sweeping margin. DC Water reported levels of E. coli coming from the overflow at 2,420 MPN/100mL on Feb. 6, but later changed the number to a sum 9,900% higher than the initial estimate.
A further overflow of the sewer line occurred on Feb. 8.
“The overflow event occurred when multiple pumps were out of service for required cleaning and maintenance after becoming clogged by non-disposable wipes that were flushed into the system. This reduction in pumping capacity coincided with a high flow period in the sewer system contributing to the event,” DC Water said in a statement.
There have been no new overflows since Feb. 8, according to DC Water.
Trump has accused officials, particularly Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD), of failing to adequately step up during the crisis, and suggested they could have done more to prevent the infrastructural nightmare from occurring.
The president reiterated those sentiments on Tuesday, when he said the federal government “can fix” the sewage crisis.
“Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., who are responsible for the massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, must get to work, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, days after announcing the deployment of FEMA assets to contain the spill. “If they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed. The Federal Government is not at all involved with what has taken place, but we can fix it.”
