Washington, D.C
Who foots the $20M bill of the Potomac River sewage cleanup, repairs? – WTOP News
The cost of cleaning up and making repairs after a sewer line failure sent hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage into the Potomac River will total around $20 million.
The cost of cleaning up and making repairs after a sewer line failure sent hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage into the Potomac River will total about $20 million, the CEO of D.C. Water said Friday.
David Gadis provided the estimate during a briefing on the Jan. 19 failure of the Potomac Interceptor, a roughly 60-year-old, 54-mile long sewer line. The pipe failed in Cabin John, Maryland.
It’s not entirely clear how the cost will be covered.
Earlier this week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser submitted a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration request, seeking full reimbursement for costs incurred by both D.C. and D.C. Water.
“We expect 100% reimbursement,” Bowser said.
But D.C. Water’s facilities, including the Potomac Interceptor, are funded through an intermunicipal agreement, or IMA. Maryland and Virginia would be on the hook for more than 50% of the cost, per the agreement.
So will the federal government approve D.C.’s request? And if so, will Maryland and Virginia’s share be covered too?
“If the president wants to help Americans who deserve to know that the Potomac River is safe, it doesn’t matter, in my estimation, if it comes through D.C. to D.C. Water, because D.C. Water serves D.C., Maryland and Virginia. It’s kind of hard to parse it out,” Bowser said. “We are happy to be the conduit for the region.”
President Donald Trump also weighed in this week on social media, saying the three jurisdictions needed to work collaboratively. He called out Maryland Gov. Wes Moore by name.
“If they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, adding the federal government “can fix it.”
According to D.C. Water, the utility’s customers will not face any additional financial strain as a result of the sewage spill. Gadis said there would be no rate increase tied to the incident, and that the utility had already submitted planned rate increases for the future.
Officials also stressed during Friday’s briefing that drinking water was not affected, but said people should avoid recreational contact with the river as a precaution.
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February 27, 2026, was a flash point in the cold war between Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.
The AI giant Anthropic had drawn a red line with the Pentagon, forbidding the military from using its product for autonomous weapons or the mass surveillance of Americans. The Pentagon retaliated by ending their contract and designating Anthropic a supply-chain risk. Anthropic has since sued to overturn this designation.
The feud-turned-legal battle is an acute example of a long-festering dynamic: technologists who want control over the use of their creations and who do not trust the government to understand or regulate their products, and policymakers wary of an unelected tech oligarchy that has become its own power center in American society.
Trae Stephens is no stranger to this dynamic.
(Photo courtesy of North Dakota National Guard. via the North Dakota Monitor)
(North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota will send 60 National Guard members to Washington, D.C., starting in April, for an estimated three months to help police the city.
The move is in support of President Donald Trump’s August executive order declaring an emergency in D.C. The president said assistance from states is necessary to address what he described as rampant crime in the nation’s capital.
“Safeguarding the citizens, federal workers and elected leaders in our nation’s capital is a matter of national security, and we appreciate these Soldiers volunteering for this important mission,” Gov. Kelly Armstrong said.
Most of the 60 North Dakota members will come from the 131st Military Police Battalion, based in Bismarck, according to the announcement.
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