First responders in swift water boats and a U.S. Park Police helicopter are scouring the Potomac River for a man who went missing while swimming in the Great Falls Park area yesterday (Sunday).
Montgomery County’s police and fire departments received a call around 6:15 p.m. for a swimmer in distress near the Billy Goat Trail in the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park in Potomac, Maryland.
Fairfax County’s drinking water utility is joining several D.C.-area organizations in a regional study to evaluate backup water supply alternatives to the Potomac River.
Fairfax Water is joining Maryland’s WSSC Water and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a $25 million “Secure the Source” study to explore potential large-scale alternatives that could provide several weeks of emergency backup water supply for over 5 million residents in the D.C. region currently served by the Potomac.
With the D.C. metro area now back under a regional drought watch, local officials have raised concerns about the ability of the Potomac River to meet the region’s long-term water needs.
An increasing population, proliferation of data centers, climate change and the possibility of accidents closing access to the river’s water are all threats, according to the general manager of Fairfax Water.
The fallout from the January sewer collapse that dumped over 200 million gallons of wastewater into the Potomac River continues to pile up, bringing a new lawsuit and a report that suggests the river might still be getting contaminated.
A Great Falls resident filed a class action lawsuit against DC Water on Friday (March 6) in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, calling for the utility to compensate himself and other individuals “whose property interests in and use and enjoyment of the Potomac River … have been impaired by [the] Defendant’s conduct.”
Though DC Water has lifted its advisory warning against recreational activities on the Potomac River, Virginia health officials are remaining cautious after millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled into the water earlier this year.
The Virginia Department of Health announced yesterday (Thursday) that it has lifted a recreational water advisory for the river from Chain Bridge (Glebe Road) in Arlington to the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge in King George County, but it remains in place for a 4.7-mile stretch upstream from Chain Bridge to the American Legion Bridge (I-495) in Fairfax County.
Please stop flushing wipes down the toilet, even if they’re labeled “flushable,” Fairfax County said in a recent message to community members.
The county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services urged residents late last week to avoid flushing anything other than toilet paper after a mass of non-disposable wipes clogged a regional sewer pipeline, exacerbating overflows into the Potomac River.
A sewage spill in the Potomac River northwest of D.C. last week has not affected drinking water in Fairfax County, the local water utility says.
The spill occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland, along Clara Barton Parkway, which hugs the northern edge of the Potomac River near Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park. The spill was caused by a DC Water sewer pipe that collapsed late Monday, Jan. 19, shooting sewage out of the ground and into the river.
