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President Donald Trump ordered a government-wide effort to protect the District of Columbia’s water supply and criticized Maryland Gov. Wes Moore as a sewer pipe break in Cabin John released an estimated 240 million gallons into the Potomac River.
The break was first spotted on security cameras along Clara Barton Parkway north of the county line Jan. 19, and within days, DC Water crews were able to isolate most of the spill from the same Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, according to local reports.
The pipeline takes wastewater from several cities in the John F. Dulles International Airport area all the way to Washington, where it is processed downstream at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Anacostia, DC.
“There is a major environmental disaster occurring on the Potomac River because of the mismanagement of local Democratic leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland,” Trump said in a Truth Social post late Monday.
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Sewage stuck to flotsam in the Potomac near Glen Echo, Maryland. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“This is the same Governor who can’t rebuild a bridge. It’s clear that local authorities can’t handle this disaster properly,” Trump said, referring to the recently extended timeline and reported multibillion-dollar cost estimates for rebuilding the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge on the Baltimore Beltway.
The tragedy affects another key Francis Scott Bridge in Georgetown, DC, as Trump referred to the e.Coli outbreak as he counted the downstream from the spill.
“I am directing Federal Authorities to immediately provide all necessary Administration, Directives, and Communications to protect the Potomac, the Capital Region’s Water Supply, and our precious State Utilities in the Nation’s City,” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social. “Although state and local authorities have failed to call for Emergency Assistance, I cannot allow incompetent Local ‘Leadership’ to turn a river in Central Washington into a Disaster Area.”
Moore’s spokesman Ammar Moussa criticized Trump in response, saying he “got his facts wrong — again.”
“Since the last century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor, which is the source of the sewage leak. For the past four weeks, the Trump Administration has failed to act, running away from its responsibility and putting people’s lives at risk,” said Moussa. “The bottom line is that the president’s EPA flatly refused to participate in a major legislative hearing on the cleanup last Friday.”
“It’s clear that the Trump administration hasn’t gotten the memo that they should be in charge here,” Moussa said.
Trump also cited the Palisades fire in California, saying Democratic officials have a “war of merit” with “real consequences.”
He also noted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is currently under a partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security.
“FEMA, which is currently funded by Democrats, will play a major role in coordinating the response,” he said, as many of those workers may be unpaid.
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Sewage in the Potmac, left; Workers attempt to repair a pipeline in Cabin John, Md., right. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Maryland State Del. Linda Foley, D-Potomac, whose district was recently flooded, said at a forum in Annapolis that it marked to her “one of the worst natural disasters in the eastern half of the United States.”
Moussa said Moussa, on the contrary, took action — pointing to the closure of mussel fishing downstream of the Nice Bridge — and told Fox News Digital that Annapolis sent crews “within hours” to help coordinate the response and protect drinking water in Montgomery County.
“Potomac is not a place to talk, and the people of the region deserve honest leadership that meets this time.”
Moore’s Department of Natural Resources has issued an emergency closure of mussel harvesting downstream, as the environmental effects are felt all the way to the Harry Nice Bridge where US 301 crosses between Bel Alton, Maryland, and Dahlgren, Virginia, about 60 miles south of Washington.
Rather than most states where the state line runs down the middle of the waterway, Maryland controls nearly all of the Potomac — save for a section where the District of Columbia briefly covers the Old Line State’s historic borders.
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The unique border is also why eccentricities such as Lady Bird Johnson Island, on the “Virginia side” of the Potomac near the Pentagon are actually in the District of Columbia.
David Gadis, CEO of DC Water, wrote in an open letter that the Potomac River is “a shared treasure” and that “any event that threatens its health understandably causes anxiety, frustration, and a sense of loss.”
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“Our priorities have been capture, environmental monitoring, and stabilization – working collaboratively with federal, state, and local partners to assess water quality, environmental impacts, and necessary remediation,” he wrote.
