The Trump administration and Maryland sued DC Water this week over a massive raw sewage spill in the Potomac River, accusing the Washington-based utility of failing to maintain its infrastructure.
The lawsuits filed Monday allege that DC Water delayed necessary repairs to a major sewer pipe that collapsed on Jan. 19, releasing over 240 million gallons of untreated sewage into the river. Both suits seek penalties for costs associated with cleaning up the river.
“Pollution that jeopardizes core federal interests warrants federal enforcement,” Jeffrey Hall, EPA’s top environmental enforcement official, said in a news release. “This judicial action serves as the necessary next step in the federal response to the collapse of the Potomac Interceptor and will help prevent future collapses.”
The complaints are the first formal enforcement actions against DC Water since the historic failure of the Potomac Interceptor, a 54-mile sewer line that transports wastewater from Maryland and Virginia to a treatment plant in Washington. The pipe dates to the early 1960s and is an extreme example of the precarious state of the nation’s water infrastructure, much of which was built more than a half-century ago.
