Justice Department Sues DC Over Large Potomac River Sewer Spill

The Justice Department sued the District of Columbia Monday over the unauthorized discharge of more than 200 million gallons of sewage into the Potomac River this winter, alleging the municipality failed to properly maintain its aging sewage system.

The District of Columbia Water Authority didn’t repair “severe corrosion” in a 54-mile regional sanitary sewage pipe, and it then “failed to adequately address” the pipeline’s collapse that threatened the city’s major river in violation of the Clean Water Act, according to the complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

In January, a portion of the Potomac ...