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In what is likely to be the largest sewage spill in American history, roughly 300 million gallons of raw untreated sewage was dumped into the Potomac river in Washington D.C. this came as a result of a 60 year old pipe collapsing along the Clara Barton Parkway. Quote an enormous sewage spill that sent hundreds of millions of gallons of raw human waste into the Potomac river is threatening the health of the river and the safety of those who use it to in what appears to be the largest discharge of its kind in the nation's history, untreated sewage began gushing into the Potomac on January 19th when a section of a sewer line collapsed near the Clara Barton Parkway in Montgomery County, Maryland, about five miles upstream of Washington. And so this pipe, which for your reference is huge by the way, it's a 72 inch diameter pipe, so it's 6ft going across and through it passes something like six 60 million gallons of raw sewage per day. The sewage, it comes from as far away as Dulles International Airport in Virginia and it goes to the Blue Plains treatment plant in Washington D.C. where it gets treated, cleaned and then eventually released into the river. However, in late January, when that pipe collapsed, the 60 million gallons of daily raw sewage had nowhere else to go. This meant that it was just piling up for about one full week. Quote the sewage flooded into the river unencumbered for about a week until DC Water, the utility that owns and operates the sewer line, was able to divert it to a section of pipe downstream that runs to a water treatment facility. However, it is worth noting that even after this diversion to another pipe, there have been intermittent sewage spills happening at the site of the collapse as recently as just last week. In fact, if you go over to dcwater.com where you can find daily updates on the repair process, it says that as workers are racing to fix the pipe, spills continue to occasionally occur. Quote Pumping capacity remains a challenge due to ongoing maintenance and operational issues. An overflow occurred late Monday night when two pumps clogged with non disposable wipes were taken out of service for cleaning and maintenance. During a period of high flow, the volume of wastewater temporarily exceeded pumping capacity which resulting in the overflow, which is honestly a good reminder to all of us to never flush those non disposable wipes down the toilet. You think that it's more convenient and maybe you're saving a few seconds, but actually you might be unknowingly causing sewage to literally spill out onto the surface of the earth. Regardless, those recent leaks were minor leaks. The bulk of the Problem happened in that first one week before the sewage was diverted to another pipe. So during that one week, roughly 300 millions of gallons of raw human sewage flowed into the river, which during that time period, if you do the math, represented something like 2% of the entire river's flow. Quote DC Water, a local water utility, said that roughly 194 million gallons overflowed from the collapse site in the first five days after the incident, with about 49 million gallons overflowing in the time since. The utility noted that the estimated peak discharge of wastewater was roughly 40 million gallons per day, accounts for about 2% of the Potomac's total flow during the period. Now, I will just quickly mention for your reference as a total aside, that there are different estimates floating around out there. Some groups say that it's 250 million gallons of waste that was released. Some other groups say that it's over 300 million gallons. To me, it seems a bit like splitting hairs. I mean, at those volumes, what's the actual difference from a human perspective if it's 250 million versus 300 million gallons of raw human sewage? It is what it is. I will just mention to you that there are different estimates depending on who you ask. I'll also mention that you should take a quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons so that you can get updates every time we publish them. And also the YouTube algorithm can pick up this episode and share it with other more people. Thank you so much. All right, just to pause here for a super quick moment, I'd like to introduce today's sponsor, Shen Yun Performing Arts. It is the preeminent best, best Chinese classical dance performance in the world. But funny enough, they're actually based right here in the US and they're not allowed to perform in China. Part of the show, it exposes the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party. And so ironically, they can't even go there. But the show itself is great. I've personally seen it several times. And the athleticism, the artistry, the stories are phenomenal. Some of them are touching, some are funny. A lot of them are thought provoking and. And you're not really allowed to film the show, but basically it looked exactly like the commercials do. Beautiful colors, a full orchestra right there in the theater. They also have the screen in the back that's perfectly timed with the dancers. So sometimes it looks like they're jumping in and out of the screen to tell the story, which is cool. But the best part is that it's just super uplifting. In a moral sense, I feel like every time I watch it, I leave the theater as a better person than I did coming in. And most shows nowadays, at least in my opinion, are really subversive and they sneak in some communist elements. But Shen Yun is different. They really showcase traditional culture and even though it's Chinese, it actually probably resonates with everyone. So check it out. They have shows coming up in like 100 different cities. Dallas, Houston, New York, Memphis, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle, pretty much everywhere else in between. And the best part is that to our viewers, they're offering a special promotional deal. Just buy your tickets over on the Shenyun website and use promo code Roman26 to avoid paying both the ticketing fee as well as the facility fee. That's again, promo code R o M A N26. I'll throw a link to the website where you can find all the different show dates and cities. It'll be down in the description box below. Regardless of that, though, the problems that present themselves to the people who actually live by the river are several fold besides I guess just the disgusting thought of it and the accompanying smell there is the elevated presence of things like E. Coli mrsa, as well as the bacteria that causes staph infections. And on the topic of E. Coli specifically, researchers from the University of Maryland, in partnership with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, found that water samples from where sewage entered the Potomac were more than 10,000 times above EPA standards on January 21 and more than 2,500 times above EPA standards on January 28. On January 28, water from a site 1010 miles downstream from the overflow tested 1.5 times above the E. Coli concentration standard and by the way, muddying the waters a little bit. DC Water, which is that local utility, they made a huge mistake when initially reporting the E. Coli levels near the drainage pipe. They said on February 6 that the levels of E. Coli were 2,420 parts per 100 milliliters. But then later they offered a correction, saying that due to human error, those numbers were off by a factor of 100. The real number on that date was 242,000 parts per 100 milliliters, meaning there was 100 times more E. Coli than they reported for that particular day. In their correction, they stated that, quote, we regret this mistake and have implemented additional quality control measures to ensure the accuracy of the data reported. Now since then, according at least to the local D.C. officials, subsequent tests found that the presence of E. Coli has declined significantly in the river, to the point now Where DC Water, they claim that, quote, E. Coli concentrations at all downstream sampling locations were within the EPA's acceptable range for recreational activities, which is a bit funny because if that's true, if the level of E. Coli is within the EPA's accepted range of recreational activities, which I guess would include swimming, then why are both the D.C. department of Energy and Environment, as well as the Virginia Department of Health telling people right now to avoid any contact with the river? According to them, those two agencies, people should not be engaging in anything in fishing, in tubing, in white water, canoeing, in kayaking, and they're also telling people to avoid letting their pets make contact with the river. It could just be out of an abundance of caution. But my point is that mixed messages are getting sent out to the public. However, perhaps the silver lining to all this is that according to those two agencies, the local DC Drinking water has not actually been negatively affected. Since they say that the drinking water goes through a separate system and that system is located upstream from where the spill actually occurred, DC Water has stated that drinking water is not affected by the incident. The nearest Virginia location using the Potomac river as a primary source of water is the city of Fairfax, with an intake located several miles upstream of where the sewage spill entered the river. So that's good if it's true. However, regarding the river itself downstream, even though the most recent sample test showed that the bacteria levels are beginning to stabilize and return to normal, you do have to factor in the freezing temperatures that currently exist. When spring comes in a month or two, the bacteria that's frozen now might once again become a problem. Here was what, in fact, the president of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network told the Hill in an interview just a few days ago. Quote, as spring approaches and temperatures get warmer, frozen bacteria that was previously dormant in the Potomac will unfreeze and release into the river. That makes continual monitoring of E. Coli levels paramount. As we're getting all this melting, we're getting new releases from bacteria that already came from the pipes but were frozen in the river. And we have no idea how long that could be going on. And that's part of the reason we're going to need consistent monitoring, analyses and reporting on this to make sure as it gets warmer, people can stay safe. Meaning that if you have any plans in the Potomac river this upcoming spring, well, do keep an eye out for any updates coming out from the local water agencies. Now, the next part is, I don't almost want to get into it, but I guess it is a part of the story which is the political angle. And the best way to describe it is that every single party involved is just pointing the finger at every other party that's involved. For his part, President Trump released a statement on Truth Social, basically castigating and putting the blame on the local Democrat leadership. Here was the initial post that he made on Monday, February 16, quote, There is a massive ecological disaster unfolding in the Potomac river and as a result of the gross mismanagement of local Democrat leaders, particularly Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, a sewer line breach in Maryland has caused millions of gallons of raw sewage to be dumped directly into the Potomac River, a result of incompetent local and state management of essential waste management systems. Meaning that at least according to President Trump, the Democrat governor of Maryland, as well as the local utilities, they're at fault for the initial spill and then the subsequent week long drainage. However, as a response to that, you had Governor Wes Moore of Maryland fire back at President Trump by saying that no, no, no, you're actually at fault. Here was what Governor Moore said in a statement by a spokesperson. Quote, the president has his facts wrong again. Since the last century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor, which is the origin of the sewage leak. For the last four weeks, the Trump administration has failed to act, shirking its responsibility and putting people's health at risk. Meaning that even though the spill happened in the borders of Maryland, it was actually the federal government responsible for maintaining that pipe. And this is where things get a little bit muddy because it is the EPA which regulates state waterways and wetlands. However, it's DC Water, which is an independent public authority in Washington D.C. which is responsible for pipe repairs, cleanup, and they're the ones who give both operational updates to both the state and local governments. And just as President Trump alluded to in that statement of his on Truth Social, it is true that there has been a lot more DEI related policies being pushed by DC Water under the Biden administration. They even set up something that was akin to an affirmative action contracting policy where they have been actively prioritizing minority owned businesses and in the bidding process and they've even been giving those minority owned businesses leeway if those contractors fall short of expectations. Quote under the new CEO, DC Water also pursued fair share objectives to boost participation from disadvantaged minority and women owned business enterprises. To reinforce those goals, DC Water created the Business Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council and established bidding preferences for disadvantaged and women owned contractors across on projects over $1 million. Under its 2020amended business development Plan. Such contractors cannot be penalized for falling short of project goals if they demonstrate good faith effort. Along that same line, here is a short clip from a zoom meeting with the DC Water CEO wherein he discusses the priorities when hiring new executives.