Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser requested federal emergency assistance from President Donald Trump‘s administration in response to the massive sewer collapse in the Potomac River.
Bowser made her first public move on the issue this week, declaring the now-largest sewage spill in U.S. history a “local public emergency” on Wednesday evening. Bowser then sent a letter to Trump and D.C.’s regional Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator requesting federal help and declaring the situation a federal “major disaster.”
“I am also seeking 100% reimbursement for costs incurred by the District and the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water), such that emergency response, repair, and remediation costs are not incurred by ratepayers in any impacted state or the District,” Bowser wrote.
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Bowser’s public emergency declaration and federal request came one month after the Potomac Interceptor sewer line initially collapsed in the Potomac River at a point near Cabin John, Maryland. The spill has allowed over 243 million gallons of raw sewage to flow into the Potomac, skyrocketing levels of E. coli bacteria in the water to numbers where the river is unsafe to touch.
Her request for assistance came just one day after Trump told local officials to “immediately” start fixing the problem or ask him “politely” to bring in federal aid to fix the issue.
“Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., who are responsible for the massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, must get to work, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “If they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed.”
The challenge the federal government is facing over sending FEMA aid to help with the sewage spill is that the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA’s parent department, is currently shut down due to the agency’s funding impasse in Congress. On Wednesday evening, FEMA reportedly announced that DHS issued a “stop-travel order” for all DHS-related travel, including disaster relief.
A FEMA spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that travel is “not cancelled,” but some “operational activities” have been restricted as a result of the funding lapse.
Trump said on Tuesday that the federal assistance would require “true Patriots” due to the shutdown.
“The Federal Government is not at all involved with what has taken place, but we can fix it. But remember, even in that case, with the Democrat Shutdown, we’ll have to bring in true Patriots to do the work because many are not working right now,” Trump wrote.
Authorities told Maryland state legislators they expect the full repair of the interceptor line to take over 9 months.
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Several regional U.S. lawmakers, including Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), wrote a letter to DC Water on Wednesday urging more transparency.
“While we appreciate the ongoing emergency response, we remain deeply concerned about the near-term public health and environmental impacts of this spill,” the lawmakers wrote, pointing to “alarming” levels of E. coli contamination, the potential impacts on fish and wildlife, and the effects of the freezing temperatures on the spill.
