As the last month of the winter season approaches, ensuring the Potomac River is healthy enough for residents and visitors to partake in waterfront activities is a priority for many. Still, the river’s health was put at risk after the Jan. 19 collapse of the Potomac Interceptor (PI) – an incident that has sparked concern among residents and water health advocates alike.
The collapse of a 72-inch pipe along the Clara Barton Parkway in Montgomery County caused an overflow of more than 200,000 million gallons of wastewater into the river. Since the incident, DC Water crews have been working to contain the discharge, monitor the water’s health and ecological impacts, and strengthen the system’s infrastructure.
“This incident has also underscored a broader reality facing utilities across the country: much of the infrastructure that protects our waterways was built decades ago, long before today’s environmental standards, population growth, and climate pressures,” said DC Water CEO David L. Gadis in an open letter to the public on Feb. 11.
Since the PI collapse, DC Water has provided the community with daily briefings on the situation, detailing any overflow events and infrastructure changes. Per the Feb. 16 update, crews and contractors have almost completed an enhanced bypass system that will allow for repairs to begin on the damaged parts of the Potomac Interceptor.
Earlier in February, CCTV footage revealed a rock dam spanning approximately 30 feet downstream of the collapse site. Before crews can accurately analyze the damage and proceed with repairs, they must remove the blockage. Once the bypass system is finished, the emergency repairs are expected to take between four and six weeks.
DC Water has programs in place to inspect sewage infrastructure and make upgrades where needed, including part of the company’s Capital Improvement Program that will allocate a $625 million investment over 10 years to restore the sections of the PI that are most at risk.
“Once the emergency repairs are complete, we will be accelerating part of the planned rehabilitation for this section of the sewer line,” DC Water said in a statement sent to The Informer. “This will include more than 2700 linear feet of the Potomac Interceptor around the collapse site.”
Concerned Advocates Put Pressure on DC Water
While DC Water has worked to keep the disaster at bay and the public informed, some residents and river health advocates remain concerned about the long-term plan to ensure the stability of the water system’s infrastructure and prevent incidents like this from occurring.
In a motion to demand accountability, transparency and a clearly outlined course of action, more than 2,100 residents and 20 environmental groups signed a public letter released by the Potomac Conservancy to DC Water and Gadis expressing their concerns and expectations.
The letter, which gives DC Water a deadline to respond by Feb. 27, asks that the company provides continuous updates regarding contamination and how public health may be impacted; grants the public access to the most recent assessment of the PI’s infrastructural integrity; commissions a study to assess causes and possible warning signs of the disaster; and outlines a plan to address the line’s weak spots by the end of March. It also includes other demands that would ensure long-term infrastructure integrity and, in turn, disaster prevention.
“I think the challenges will be ensuring that there are public voices calling on the decision makers to invest in their communities and invest in this infrastructure, and that’s why we’re trying to build a movement for clean water,” Potomac Conservancy President Hedrick Belin told The Informer. “I think this is an opportunity for people to voice their commitment to, love of and passion for our hometown river.”
While they acknowledge the swift emergency response to the collapse, Hedrick said that many community members were expressing concern regarding the fact that Gadis hadn’t directly addressed the public regarding the incident before his open letter was published, which is one of the reasons why they felt inclined to release the joint letter to him and DC Water.
The independent authority says they are indeed prioritizing transparency, mitigation and infrastructure longevity.
“As CEO and General Manager of DC Water, Mr. Gadis has taken the lead in this incident by engaging with our federal, local, and state partners to coordinate our efforts at every level, keeping them informed and working to ensure we had the necessary resources,” DC Water told The Informer. “Our first priority was to contain the sewer overflow, mitigate further impacts as much as possible, and advance our plans for emergency repairs.”
A Lifelong Dream for a Swimmable River
Ensuring the river’s water health is restored as soon as possible is a pressing matter for many, especially those who are committed to making the Potomac and its tributaries swimmable and fishable. As of 2025, the river’s health is at a five-year standstill, as it, yet again, scored a ‘B’ in the conservancy’s most recent report card. An event like this could put the progress made thus far at risk, especially without a combined effort from multiple parties to fortify the system’s infrastructure.
For Tendani Mpulubusi, Ward 6 resident, artist and longtime riverkeeper for the Anacostia River, this concern for the health of the region’s water network dates back to 2002 when he was 19 years old and first joined AmeriCorps via the Earth Conservation Corps. For the last 24 years, Mpulubusi has been dedicated to cleaning the Anacostia River, restoring its health and reclaiming the watershed.
“To be able to actually swim in the Anacostia River, it’s almost a lifelong dream of mine now,” Mpulubusi told The Informer. “Being able to be on the waterway raises property value and has economic interest,… but to interact with the river, it’s just the energy.”
He described the waterfront and its wildlife and vegetation as something that is necessary to preserve, something that holds an immense amount of beauty and alluring energy. He told The Informer that safeguarding the region’s water network is one of the key ways in which the community can respect and honor the nature that surrounds it.
Mpulubusi believes that repairing the damages caused by the PI’s collapse requires an all-hands-on-deck approach that is properly funded and educates the public about the significance of the river’s health.
“To be in a city with a nice waterfront is a privilege,” he told The Informer. “We’ve got to protect it [because] not everybody’s blessed with what we have in our backyard [and] it is in our utmost duty to protect it and preserve it for so many reasons.”
DC Water recognizes that efforts to strengthen infrastructure, not just in the District, but across the nation, are imperative in all areas, including bridges, roads, sewer systems, the electrical grid and more. To combat the issue of water system infrastructure integrity and mitigate overflows of stormwater and wastewater into the region’s waterways, the independent authority has a $9.6 billion Capital Improvement Program, which includes the Clean Rivers Project.
“We will continue to invest in proactive inspection and maintenance and prioritize the most critical rehabilitation and repairs to ensure we have a safe and reliable system,” DC Water told The Informer.