There will be a town hall meeting next week to discuss January’s sewage spill in the Potomac River, Mayor Alyia Gaskins has announced.
On Jan. 19, a collapsed pipe caused hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater to flow into the Potomac, prompting the Virginia Department of Health to issue a recreational water advisory. That advisory was partially lifted earlier this month when VDH found that bacteria concentrations were “at levels acceptable for all recreational water use.”
At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, Gaskins said the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments helped her and city staff organize the town hall. The event will be held from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, March 19 at the Nannie J. Lee Recreation Center (1108 Jefferson Street).
“[The town hall] will include both DC Water as well as other major agencies that have been involved in the response and our health department, as well an opportunity to better understand how we got here, what is the work that has been completed to date, and what is the work to prevent something like this from happening in the future,” Gaskins said at last night’s meeting.
Earlier this month, the nonprofit Potomac Conservancy published a statement saying public trust has collapsed since the spill. That followed the nonprofit’s letter to DC Water in early February asking for answers on several areas of concern.
“In what is now considered the largest sewage spill in U.S. history, over 200 million gallons of wastewater in the Potomac prompted health advisories and shut down safe recreation and fish consumption,” the Potomac Conservancy wrote. “We are deeply disappointed and frustrated that DC Water has not provided a comprehensive written response that fully addressed the issues raised.”
There has been no evidence of impacts to drinking water, according to VDH. Alexandria’s water is sourced from Fairfax Water, which uses the Occoquan Reservoir and a Potomac River intake site that is located several miles upstream of the sewage spill site.
