The director of the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment told the D.C. Council he believes fish caught in the Potomac River is safe to eat despite his agency’s guidance to avoid contact with the river and specifically not to fish in the river after a sewage spill four weeks ago.
DC Water briefed councilmembers on the situation before participating in a press conference for the first time since an underground pipe burst, sending more than 240 million gallons of raw sewage and wastewater into the Potomac.
At the Council briefing, DOEE Director Richard Jackson downplayed the seriousness of recent test results showing elevated E. coli levels in the river. After the meeting, he refused to explain himself.
He released a statement later Tuesday saying people should abide the warning to stay away from the Potomac and its fish.
Officials said they are encouraged that tests are trending downward, but they have a few weeks of testing still to go.
DC Water hasn’t heard from White House, FEMA
DC Water also addressed President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post Monday blaming Democratic leaders, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, for the ecological hazard and saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency would take over repairs and cleanup.
During the Council briefing and at the news conference, DC Water CEO David Gatis said he has not heard from the White House nor FEMA. The Environmental Protection Agency has been monitoring the situation, Gatis said.
“They were not there when we were making the repairs; they did reach out last week,” he said. “But we have been in contact with EPA, especially region three, and we have been talking with them especially about how we were making the repairs. We’ve given them briefings on what we were doing and how we were doing it. We’ve worked hand-in-hand with them. But as to the tweet, as far as I’m seeing it right now, we have not at this point in time sat down with EPA and said, We need this much money or we need this or we need that.”
Who will pay for the mishap?
While there is no estimate for how much the sewage spill repair and cleanup will cost, DC Water officials said most of that will be paid for by Maryland and Virginia.
“So, we’re a regional wastewater authority,” DC Water COO Matt Brown said. “We allocate costs based on the volume that’s treated, and so there are cost shares for all of our assets. So Blue Plains, approximately 55% of the flow comes from outside of the District of Columbia. And so the 55% of the costs are then borne by the users of the system who send flow to D.C., and we expect a similar cost split for this asset.”
Gatis told councilmembers restoring public confidence in DC Water will take a lot of work. And until the pipe is repaired, there is always the possibility of more overflows going into the Potomac, like Super Bowl Sunday when a spill caused by a massive clog of non‑disposable wipes flushed down the toilet released 600,000 more gallons of sewage into the river.
Repairs still are expected to take 4-6 weeks.
A remediation plan is in place around the site of the spill, but not yet for further down the river toward D.C.