President Donald Trump weighed in Monday on the ongoing sewage crisis on the Potomac River in a Truth Social post promising federal action to fix the situation, while accusing Maryland Gov. Wes Moore of “gross mismanagement.”
“I cannot allow incompetent Local “Leadership” to turn the River in the Heart of Washington into a Disaster Zone,” Trump wrote. “The Federal Government has no choice, but to step in.”
Moore shot back at Trump, blaming the federal government for its failure to act as the official regulator for DC Water, the utility owner of the pipe that burst and leaked millions of gallons of sewage into the Potomac River in Maryland in late January. It is one of the largest sewage spills in U.S. history.
“For the last four weeks, the Trump administration has failed to act, shirking its responsibility and putting people’s health at risk,” Moore’s spokesperson, Ammar Moussa, said. “Notably, the president’s own EPA explicitly refused to participate in the major legislative hearing about the cleanup last Friday. Apparently the Trump administration hadn’t gotten the memo that they’re actually supposed to be in charge here.”
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Until now, there has been little public engagement from the Environmental Protection Agency or any federal agency on the ongoing sewage spill. Maryland and Virginia have issued advisories warning people and pets to stay away from the Potomac River water, which now carries E. coli bacteria. As temperatures rise this week, there is a chance the bacteria will spread, and more people risk coming into contact with the pathogen.
Despite the fact that the EPA is the official regulator for DC Water and its infrastructure, Trump’s Truth Social post suggested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would lead the coordination of a response. FEMA usually has little involvement in water and sewage oversight and typically responds to disasters requiring evacuation or special emergency protection measures.
“I don’t really see a role there for FEMA at all in this,” Betsy Nicholas, president of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, told NOTUS. “And I’ve been doing this work more than 25 years, and have never interfaced with FEMA.”
“If we were in a situation where people had to be moved, or evacuated, FEMA would be involved,” she added. “Instead, it’s really just a: ‘Keep back from the site where this occurred, and don’t come in contact with the sewage.’ It’s not like sewage bursts into flames or explodes.”
The White House declined to provide any additional information when asked about FEMA and the EPA’s role in addressing the situation.
DC Water has a plan in place for a temporary solution to keep the sewage from continuing to leak into the river, but repairing the pipe will take about nine months.
The sewage spill is proving to be a microcosm of the complicated authority problems that plague all D.C.-related infrastructure. The EPA is the authority responsible for DC Water’s permits, not the D.C. government. Maryland is the authority responsible for the health of the Potomac River ecosystem where the spill occurred. And it is Virginia’s waste that actually spilled out of the pipe when it broke.
“There’s so many different bodies involved in it. It’s always confusing,” Nicholas said.
Officials from Maryland, D.C. and the EPA have been meeting to address oversight issues of the spill, but the Potomac Riverkeepers, who are conducting their own independent oversight and testing, have not been invited to these meetings, said Nicholas.
The Riverkeepers have also spoken with Virginia Rep. Don Beyer and Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin about possible congressional funding to help address the river cleanup issues once the pipe is fixed, Nicholas said.
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