Massive sewage spill flowing into Potomac River upstream from Washington
[January 24, 2026]
By MICHAEL PHILLIS, REBECCA BOONE and GARY FIELDS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A massive pipe that moves millions of gallons of
sewage has ruptured and sent wastewater flowing into the Potomac River
northwest of Washington, D.C., polluting it ahead of a major winter
storm that has repair crews scrambling.
DC Water, which operates the sewer system, is hooking up pumps to divert
sewage around the rupture and allow crews to make repairs. It has
cautioned people to stay out of the area and to wash their skin if
exposed.
The spill was caused by a 72-inch (183-centimeter) diameter sewer pipe
that collapsed late Monday, shooting sewage out of the ground and into
the river. DC Water spokesperson John Lisle said the utility estimates
the overflow at about 40 million gallons (about 150 million liters) each
day — enough to fill about 66 Olympic-size swimming pools — but it's not
clear exactly how much has spilled into the river since the overflow
began.
Signs warn the public to stay away
“Oh, my god, the smell is horrific,” said Dean Naujoks, the Potomac
Riverkeeper and part of an environmental nonprofit. “It’s such high
concentrations of sewage that just grabbing a sample is a public health
risk."
Associated Press video from the scene showed signs posted near the river
that read “DANGER” and “Raw Sewage” and warned people not to enter the
area. Naujoks and another man donned protective gloves to take samples
of water from the river to test for E. coli and other bacteria. Small
bits of debris could be seen floating in some of the sample bottles.
The spill occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland, along Clara Barton
Parkway, which hugs the northern edge of the Potomac River near
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park.
Crews are removing lock gates on the C & O Canal and will set up pumps
to divert the sewage into the canal, rerouting it away from the river
and back into the sewage system downstream. The pumps have enough
capacity to capture all of the sewage flow in dry weather, said Lisle,
but they could be overwhelmed by a surge in stormwater. Crews will work
through the weekend, when a bad winter storms is expected, Lisle said,
and they hope to have the bypass set up by Monday.
The spill does not impact drinking water, which is a separate system, DC
Water said.
Naujoks said the spill is happening at time when the river is low. He
went out to look at it Wednesday and was “kind of stunned.”
“Sewage is just bubbling up like a small geyser, maybe 2, 3 feet into
the air,” he said. “Sewage water is running in every direction.”
The District of Columbia Department of the Environment did not
immediately respond to a request for comment, including whether it is
testing the river’s water.
Damaged pipeline is one of several sections identified for repair
DC Water knew the pipeline was deteriorating, and rehabilitation work on
a section about a quarter-mile from the break began in September and was
recently completed, Lisle said. Repair work on additional “high
priority” sections of the pipeline is expected to start later this year,
according to the DC Water website.
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Water samples are taken from the Potomac River, Friday, Jan. 23,
2026 in Glen Echo, Md. A massive pipe that moves millions of gallons
of sewage has ruptured and sent wastewater flowing into the Potomac
River northwest of Washington, polluting it ahead of a major winter
storm that has repair crews scrambling. (AP Photo/Nathan Ellgren)
The pipeline, called the Potomac Interceptor, was first installed in
the 1960s.
There's a huge funding gap for water infrastructure in the U.S.,
said Gary Belan, a senior director with American Rivers, an
environmental organization that advocates for clean waterways.
“I know a lot of the wastewater folks are trying to catch up as best
they can, but this is something we see and will continue to see,
where these pipes fail and these massive sewage dumps occur," Belan
said. “This is why we can't defer maintenance of our wastewater
infrastructure. Too often, we're dependent on these disasters to
prod us forward.”
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, speaking at a press conference
declaring a snow emergency for the impending storm, said authorities
there were aware of the sewage spill “but I can’t give you an
intelligent response right now.” She said D.C. officials would be
more forthcoming as soon as they could.
Kelly Offner, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson
for the mid-Atlantic region, said the agency was coordinating with
DC Water, the Maryland Department of the Environment and other
federal, state and local authorities to assess the impact on the
environment from the Potomac Interceptor sanitary sewer overflow.
The federal agency oversees DC Water’s sewer operations under a 2015
federal consent decree.
“DC Water has provided daily updates since the overflow was
discovered on January 19, 2026, and has been coordinating efforts to
contain the overflow, monitor environmental impacts, and communicate
with the public,” Offner said in an emailed response to questions.
An EPA survey of wastewater infrastructure needs from 2022 estimated
that the District of Columbia needs roughly $1.33 billion to replace
or rehabilitate structurally deteriorating sanitary or combined
sewers within the next 20 years.
Nationally, hundreds of billions in infrastructure investment is
needed over the next two decades for clean water problems like aging
sewer pipes. In other places where sewer breaks are persistent, it
can lead to backups into homes and regular flooding.
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Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.
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