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Pipe Dream? DC Asks for Federal Funds After Sewage Spill

Mayor Muriel Bowser (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

George Caldwell / @GCaldwell_news

George Caldwell is a correspondent for The Daily Signal. Send an email to George.

In the aftermath of a massive sewage leak near the nation’s capital, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is asking President Donald Trump to use his emergency powers to provide federal disaster relief funding.

“I respectfully request that you declare a Major Disaster for the District of Columbia in response to a sewer line collapse impacting the Potomac River, in the District, Maryland, and Virginia,” Bowser wrote Trump in a Wednesday letter.

Bowser additionally requested “100% reimbursement” for the District of Columbia’s costs in responding to the leak.

As the region continues responding to the Potomac Interceptor break, we have requested federal support.We are seeking 100% reimbursement for costs incurred by the District and DC Water.The other areas we have requested federal support can be found here:…— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) February 19, 2026

As the region continues responding to the Potomac Interceptor break, we have requested federal support.We are seeking 100% reimbursement for costs incurred by the District and DC Water.The other areas we have requested federal support can be found here:…

Bowser writes that, “Due to this collapse, a significant quantity of untreated wastewater flowed into the Potomac River,” over the course of the ensuing week.

She sounds the alarm on the potential spread of E. coli, as well as “other bacteria, viruses, and harmful chemicals” from the sewage leak.

On Jan. 19, a section of the Potomac Interceptor, a sewer line managed by the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, collapsed in Montgomery County, Maryland, just north of the D.C. line.

More than 200 million gallons of wastewater have entered the Potomac River, according to DC Water. A bypass system is now rerouting wastewater away from the river while crews work to fix the Interceptor.

The Environmental Protection Agency described the collapse in a statement as “a sewage crisis of historic proportion.”

Bowser’s letter follows a procedure laid out in the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988 for state and local governments to request federal disaster relief.

Democrat Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia have not publicly made requests for Trump to declare an emergency under the Stafford Act. The Potomac River divides Maryland and Virginia at the site of the spill, and flows past D.C.

Trump has been harshly critical of the local officials’ handling of the situation, writing in a Tuesday social media post, “Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., who are responsible for the massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, must get to work, IMMEDIATELY.”

He added, “If they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed. The Federal Government is not at all involved with what has taken place, but we can fix it.”

The President is lying to the public:1) For the past century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor – not Maryland. The sewage pipe is on federal land. 2) Maryland agencies and DC Water presented updates on the cleanup during a two-hour… pic.twitter.com/ZlvEeBW2Zr— Governor Wes Moore (@GovWesMoore) February 18, 2026

The President is lying to the public:1) For the past century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor – not Maryland. The sewage pipe is on federal land. 2) Maryland agencies and DC Water presented updates on the cleanup during a two-hour… pic.twitter.com/ZlvEeBW2Zr

Trump characterized the spill as a “Radical Left caused Environmental Hazard” and has also blamed it on Gov. Moore.

Moore has argued that maintaining the Potomac Interceptor is the federal government’s responsibility, and not Maryland’s.

On Tuesday Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., wrote on social media that he, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton had requested “federal funding to repair and modernize the Potomac Interceptor.”

The epicenter of leftist nanny-statism dumps a billion gallons of literal crap in our water – crickets… all while we hear plenty about subsidies to litter our farmland with wind, solar, and battery farm garbage… & to shove corn into our gas tanks. “Green.” https://t.co/2XWKTUNA6b— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) February 13, 2026

The epicenter of leftist nanny-statism dumps a billion gallons of literal crap in our water – crickets… all while we hear plenty about subsidies to litter our farmland with wind, solar, and battery farm garbage… & to shove corn into our gas tanks. “Green.” https://t.co/2XWKTUNA6b

Some Republicans in Congress have joined Trump in heaping blame on local officials for the spill.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote of the leak on Feb. 13, “The epicenter of leftist nanny-statism dumps a billion gallons of literal crap in our water – crickets… all while we hear plenty about subsidies to litter our farmland with wind, solar, and battery farm garbage.”

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