\n DC Water, which operates the sewer system, is hooking up pumps to divert sewage around the rupture and allow crews to make repairs. It has cautioned people to stay out of the area and to wash their skin if exposed.\n <\/p>\n
\n The spill was caused by a 72-inch diameter sewer pipe that collapsed late Monday, shooting sewage out of the ground and into the river. DC Water spokesperson John Lisle said the utility estimates the overflow at about 40 million gallons each day \u2014 enough to fill about 66 Olympic-size swimming pools \u2014 but it\u2019s not clear exactly how much has spilled into the river since the overflow began.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cOh, my god, the smell is horrific,\u201d said Dean Naujoks, the Potomac Riverkeeper and part of an environmental nonprofit. \u201cIt\u2019s such high concentrations of sewage that just grabbing a sample is a public health risk.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Associated Press video from the scene showed signs posted near the river that read \u201cDANGER\u201d and \u201cRaw Sewage\u201d and warned people not to enter the area. Naujoks and another man donned protective gloves to take samples of water from the river to test for E. coli and other bacteria. Small bits of debris could be seen floating in some of the sample bottles.\n <\/p>\n
\n The spill occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland, along Clara Barton Parkway, which hugs the northern edge of the Potomac River near Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Workers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c-ap26023738530220.jpg\")
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\n Crews are removing lock gates on the C & O Canal and will set up pumps to divert the sewage into the canal, rerouting it away from the river and back into the sewage system downstream. The pumps have enough capacity to capture all of the sewage flow in dry weather, said Lisle, but they could be overwhelmed by a surge in stormwater. Crews will work through the weekend, when a bad winter storm<\/a> is expected, Lisle said, and they hope to have the bypass set up by Monday.\n <\/p>\n \n The spill does not impact drinking water, which is a separate system, DC Water said.\n <\/p>\n \n Naujoks said the spill is happening at a time when the river is low. He went out to look at it Wednesday and was \u201ckind of stunned.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSewage is just bubbling up like a small geyser, maybe 2, 3 feet into the air,\u201d he said. \u201cSewage water is running in every direction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The District of Columbia Department of the Environment did not immediately respond to a request for comment, including whether it is testing the river\u2019s water.\n <\/p>\n \n DC Water knew the pipeline was deteriorating, and rehabilitation work on a section about a quarter-mile from the break began in September and was recently completed, Lisle said. Repair work on additional \u201chigh priority\u201d sections of the pipeline is expected to start later this year, according to the DC Water website.\n <\/p>\n \n The pipeline, called the Potomac Interceptor, was first installed in the 1960s.\n <\/p>\n \n There\u2019s a huge funding gap for water infrastructure in the US, said Gary Belan, a senior director with American Rivers, an environmental organization that advocates for clean waterways.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI know a lot of the wastewater folks are trying to catch up as best they can, but this is something we see and will continue to see, where these pipes fail and these massive sewage dumps occur,\u201d Belan said. \u201cThis is why we can\u2019t defer maintenance of our wastewater infrastructure. Too often, we\u2019re dependent on these disasters to prod us forward.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, speaking at a press conference declaring a snow emergency for the impending storm, said authorities there were aware of the sewage spill \u201cbut I can\u2019t give you an intelligent response right now.\u201d She said DC officials would be more forthcoming as soon as they could.\n <\/p>\n \n Kelly Offner, a US Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson for the mid-Atlantic region, said the agency was coordinating with DC Water, the Maryland Department of the Environment and other federal, state and local authorities to assess the impact on the environment from the Potomac Interceptor sanitary sewer overflow. The federal agency oversees DC Water\u2019s sewer operations under a 2015 federal consent decree.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDC Water has provided daily updates since the overflow was discovered on January 19, 2026, and has been coordinating efforts to contain the overflow, monitor environmental impacts, and communicate with the public,\u201d Offner said in an emailed response to questions.\n <\/p>\n \n An EPA survey of wastewater infrastructure needs from 2022 estimated that the District of Columbia needs roughly $1.33 billion to replace or rehabilitate structurally deteriorating sanitary or combined sewers within the next 20 years.\n <\/p>\n![\"Raw](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c-ap26023778443051.jpg\")
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