DC Mayor Bowser declares emergency over Potomac sewage spill, asks for federal help

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a disaster emergency over the Potomac sewage spill on Wednesday and requested federal assistance with the cleanup.

The sewage spill has now become the largest in U.S. history, dumping over 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. President Donald Trump has already lashed out at Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for his handling of the spill, saying he is concerned the river winding around the nation's capital will still stink when America250 celebrations kick off this summer.

Bowser wrote a letter to Trump on Wednesday formally requesting that he issue an emergency disaster declaration, freeing up federal resources to help deal with the spill.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized Trump's concerns in a press conference on Wednesday. Fox News' Peter Doocy asked Leavitt if Trump is concerned the nation's capital will "smell like poop."

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"Yeah, he is worried about that," Leavitt said. "Which is why the federal government wants to fix it. And we hope that the local authorities will cooperate with us in doing so."

Leavitt called on leaders in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. to "step forward and to ask the federal government for help and to ask for the Stafford Act to be implemented here so that the federal government can go and take control of this local infrastructure that has been abandoned and neglected by Gov. Moore in Maryland for far too long."

"It's no secret that Maryland's water and infrastructure have been in dire need of repair," Leavitt said. "Their infrastructure has received a nearly failing grade in the 2025 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers. This is the same grade they've received, five years earlier. There has been no improvement under the leadership of Gov. Moore. He's clearly shown he's incapable of fixing this problem, which is why President Trump and the federal government are standing by to step in."

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Moore's office has pushed back on the administration's rhetoric surrounding the leak, claiming the federal government has oversight over DC Water, the District's water and sewer utility. 

"Since the last century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor, which is the origin of the sewage leak. For the last four weeks, the Trump Administration has failed to act, shirking its responsibility and putting people's health at risk," a representative from Moore's office said on Monday. "Notably, the president's own EPA explicitly refused to participate in the major legislative hearing about the cleanup last Friday."

Leavitt continued Wednesday that environmentalists should "pray" that local jurisdictions call on Trump to step in and shore up infrastructure and carry out cleanup.

"For all of the environmentalists in the room and across the District of Columbia, let's all hope and pray that this governor does the right thing and ask President Trump to get involved, because it will be an ecological and environmental disaster if the federal government does not step in to help," she said. "But of course, we need the state and local jurisdictions to make that formal request."