In what is likely to be the largest sewage spill in American history, roughly 300 million gallons of raw untreated sewage was dumped into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

This came as a result of a 60-year-old pipe collapsing along the Clarabarten Parkway.

Quote, an enormous sewage spill that sent hundreds of millions of gallons of

raw human waste into the Potomac River is threatening the health of the river and the safety of those

who use it. In what appears to be the largest discharge of its kind in the nation's history,

untreated sewage began gushing into the Potomac on January 19th when a section of a sewer line

collapsed near the Clara Barton Parkway in Montgomery County, Maryland, about five miles upstream

of Washington. And so this pipe, which free reference is huge, by the way, it's a 72 inch

diameter pipe, so it's six feet going across, and through it passes something like 60 million gallons

of raw sewage per day. The sewage, it comes from as far away as Dulles International Airport

in Virginia, and it goes to the Blue Plains Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C., where it gets treated,

clean, and then eventually release into the river. However, in late January, when that pipe

collapsed, the 60 million gallons of daily raw sewage had nowhere else to go. This meant

that it was just piling up for about one full week. Quote, the sewage flooded into the river

unencumbered for about a week until DC Water, the utility that owns and operates the sewer

line, was able to divert it to a section of pipe downstream that runs to a water treatment

facility. However, it is worth noting that even after this diversion to another pipe, there have

been intermittent sewage spills happening at the site of the collapse as recently as just last week.

In fact, if you go over to DCWater.com, where you can find daily updates on the repair process,

it says that as workers are racing to fix the pipe, spills continue to occasionally occur.

Quote, pumping capacity remains a challenge due to ongoing maintenance and operational issues.

An overflow occurred late Monday night when two pumps clogged with non-disposable wipes were taken out

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