By Davi Jacobs

Dean Naujoks was still groggy from oral surgery when his phone began buzzing with messages.

One of them was from a kayaker who had seen something suspicious: “If you had a kayak, you could surf the wave where water was crashing into the Potomac River.” 

Only it wasn’t water. It was sewage.

“I got out there the very next morning, and I was just stunned,” Naujoks, who works for the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, said. “Not one drop of it was being contained.”

Contaminated water has impacted thousands of people living along the Potomac River since a 60-year-old interceptor pipeline collapsed along the Clara Barton Parkway in January, according to officials.

According to DC Water, the 72-inch line that transports wastewater across the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area broke, causing raw sewage to pour into the river. The company said crews responded immediately to the scene. 

Brent Walls, a fellow Potomac Riverkeeper, said he was not surprised. 

“That pipe has been scheduled for maintenance for quite some time,” Walls said. “Unfortunately, it takes money for these waste or treatment plants to investigate, assess, and then repair any damaged sections of the sewer system. The environment is usually last on the list for funding.” 

According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, there are approximately 152,000 public drinking water systems and more than 16,000 wastewater treatment systems in the U.S.

Many sewage pipes across the country are at risk of bursting as the country’s infrastructure ages, officials said. Under the current administration, limited investment at both the federal and local levels has exacerbated the situation. 

Priscila Alves, a University of Maryland civil engineer with experience in water resources, environmental engineering and urban planning, explained why infrastructure problems often go unaddressed.

“Infrastructure is below the ground,” Alves said. “People don’t see it. Local administrations don’t put much effort into fixing it because it doesn’t win votes. Everyone thinks about infrastructure when flooding is happening, but when it’s not flooding, no one is thinking about it.”

According to an open letter, workers activated an emergency bypass on Jan. 24, five days after the spill began, rerouting flows through the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The organization declared the spill “largely contained” on Jan. 29.

By that point, roughly 243 million gallons of untreated sewage had already contaminated the river, according to the Potomac Riverkeeper Network. 

Based on key findings published by DC Water, most of the waste entered the river in the initial five days before the bypass was operational.

As DC Water worked on repairing the broken pipe, UMD researchers launched their own investigation at the spill site. 

Claire Barlow, an environmental health science doctoral candidate in the School of Public Health, is a member of the Water Quality, Outreach and Wellness Laboratory, which has been studying microbial water quality of the river since Jan. 21. 

She described what her team encountered at the scene. 

“All around that area is wastewater debris,” Barlow said. “Toilet paper fragments. Condoms. Tampons. Anything that gets flushed ends up along the bed of the river.” 

She also noted an odor that “sort of smells like decay.”

The testing revealed E. coli levels that were over 10,000 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s recreational standards. Researchers found MRSA, the bacteria responsible for staph infections, at one-third of sampling sites. 

Despite these findings, DC Water issued a press release on Feb. 6 stating the waters were safe. On Feb. 9, the company acknowledged a “significant reporting error.” Actual E. coli concentrations were approximately 100 times higher than initially disclosed.

On Feb. 9, the Potomac Conservancy submitted a letter to DC Water demanding answers. More than 2,100 community members and 21 environmental organizations signed it. The group set a deadline of Feb. 27 for a response.

By then, they had received only confirmation that their letter had been received.

On March 2, the Potomac Conservancy issued a statement: “The Potomac Interceptor collapsed and so has public trust. DC Water failed to respond to our Feb. 9 demands for answers and actions. We are deeply disappointed and frustrated that DC Water has not provided a comprehensive written response that fully addressed the issues raised.” 

DC Water CEO David Gadis issued a public letter that recognized the severe environmental impact and the distress caused to community members, river users and environmental protectors.

 “We recognize that describing response actions does not erase the environmental impact or the concern this incident caused,” Gadis wrote. “For those who live near the river, recreate on it, or work every day to protect it, witnessing this unfold was distressing. We hear that clearly.”

Walls said the spill reflects a pervasive challenge. 

“It’s a systemic issue across the United States,” Walls said. “We have an aging infrastructure of sewer systems, and that aging infrastructure takes a toll.”

The spill’s impact extends beyond environmental concerns, according to Naujoks.

“Charter captains in D.C. — people aren’t signing up to go fishing,” Naujoks said. “There’s watermen downriver that have been impacted. We pull about three tons of blue cats out of the Potomac River every year. How are those watermen expected to make a living if they can’t bring their fish to market?”

The river’s recovery remains uncertain.

Betsy Nicholas, president of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, warned that as temperatures warm, bacteria that had frozen in the river over winter could thaw and activate again. 

Barlow’s team plans to continue monitoring the river to determine how long pathogens may linger.

DC Water continues its environmental restoration at the spill site, removing contaminated soil and debris. The company began flying drones along the 54-mile Potomac Interceptor to guide inspections and long-term repairs. At the same time, parts of the river have reopened for recreation as bacteria levels decline, according to a recent press release from DC Water. 

Gadis emphasized DC Water’s long-term commitment in his letter. 

“Restoring confidence — both in the river’s health and in our stewardship — requires more than repairs,” he wrote. “It requires listening, learning, and continuous improvement.”

For Walls, whose farm is less than half a mile from the Potomac River, the spill is personal. He takes his kids swimming in the river and fishes there.

“There is a lot of beauty in the river,” Walls said. “Rivers and streams provide an experience for healthy living and you need to be able to protect that.”

Featured Image: A photo of a press release detailing the University of Maryland research team’s process of taking samples after the Potomac River sewage spill in late January. Photo by Paige Trendell.