Non-disposable wipes cause another sewage spill into the Potomac

After the sewage spill in the Potomac River a few weeks ago, DC Water began pumping the contaminated water and diverting it to the C&O Canal, but on Sunday, another spill released 600,000 more gallons of sewage into the river.

Sunday’s spill was caused by a massive clog of non‑disposable wipes flushed down the toilet, putting two of the pumps used to divert sewage out of commission, DC Water said.

At the same time, right about the time of the Super Bowl, they experienced a heavy flow of sewage coming through the interceptor that they could not keep up with, and there was an overflow, DC Water said. That’s really bad news for the environment and the Potomac River.

DC Water updates E. coli numbers

DC Water also acknowledged that in recent days they put out some of their own testing data on the level of bacteria and E. coli in the river but had their numbers wrong. They blame human error, and it was way off.

But things are somewhat back to normal, and the pumps are once again working well enough to keep the vast majority of raw sewage from making its way into the Potomac River.

DC Water says they are working with a firm to come up with a plan to remediate the area after they fix the pipeline, but they haven’t released any details. It will be weeks before the pipeline is fixed.

People are advised to stay away from the Potomac River and the C&O Canal below the 495 overpass as far down as Georgetown.