Almost symbolically, as it flows through Washington, D.C., the Potomac River carries on its journey to Chesapeake Bay more than 240 million gallons of suddenly spilled raw, untreated sewage. Poop. The smell is so pungent that residents say they can taste the filth just when talking on a street corner. Disease is a worry. Beyond the smell is the regrettable truth that a spring and summer of actually going out on the river is highly unlikely, if not foolishly risky.
The spill occurred on Jan. 19. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls it an ecological disaster of historic proportion. The University of Maryland calls it one of the largest sewage spills in the country.
To corroborate the symbolism, politicians not only have been slow to react, but they are quibbling with each other and repair work is not happening fast enough, on the grounds that no sewage pipe repair can happen fast enough. Maryland’s governor, Wes Moore, says the repair is the federal government’s responsibility. President Donald Trump, possibly suffering a nasal blockage, did not comment on the disaster until Feb. 16, 28 days after the pipe ruptured. According to an NBC News story, the finger-pointing is complicated by the interwoven jurisdictions in the area, where two states, the District of Columbia, the federal government and D.C. Water work in coordination.
Trump posted that if local leaders wanted federal help, they should call him and politely ask for help, presumably calling him sir. Trump’s nose became unplugged when he realized the threat this summer to the nation’s 250th birthday celebration. Federal funds either now have been or soon will be released on a disaster declaration.
The feds apparently have to be on the hook. Many sources point out that the federal government has been maintaining the pipe for 100 years, which makes you wonder what the undersides of our once-great cities must look like. Do you think the new Marxist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, cares about sewage pipes? No, he cares about free grocery stores. Or here, in Minneapolis, where we are entering year six just to establish a George Floyd memorial. God help anybody in this county if real work needs to be done. We have the workers, but their superiors fight all day about equity and inclusion proclamations, not infrastructure.
The broken pipe is within the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, which is property controlled by the federal government in Maryland. D.C. Water owns the Potomac Interceptor – which broke – and the EPA regulates and oversees it. Authorities claim that drinking water is not affected.
Locals are saying this: WHO CARES WHO FIXES IT? JUST FIX THE DAMN THING!
Because it is horrible and dangerous. The river is sluggish. The smell is unbearable. How many illnesses, how many businesses will suffer, how many fish and animals lost, as the burbling witch’s brew rolls, slowly, to the ocean?
Yes, I am supposed to understand that humans can destroy the Earth with their cars and lawnmowers and that true believers have a period in history they would wish to return to for more agreeable temperatures, which is an insane childish fantasy, but all you young scholars buying into this nonsense are in far more real danger from a ruptured sewer pipe than you will ever be by a gunned minivan on the way to a soccer practice. This is damage to the planet that you can see and touch and smell, not some computer model written by an academic who needs another hit of grant money.
If you really want to worry about something you can impact, start by finding people to run for office because they actually want to do something useful. We keep electing people who merely intend to be important. It’s not working out too well for us, either here or in the nation’s capital.
Every city in the country should right now be examining its water infrastructure to avoid a Potomac sewage catastrophe. But that isn’t sexy. The people we elect don’t even think that’s important.
Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.
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