The Putrid Symbolism of the Potomac Sewage Spill

Washington tries to control the world while fouling its own beautiful river and one of the richest estuaries on earth.

It was no secret that the 72-inch Potomac Interceptor sewer line was in a horrible state of disrepair, but somehow our government couldn’t muster the political will and the resources to fix it. This is the same U.S. government that has, for the last twenty-five years, wasted trillions on all manner of projects for the enrichment of special interests and foreign military adventures, including $175 billion in total aid to Ukraine.

This organized theft of taxpayer money contrasts with Washington’s refusal to upgrade our country’s old and dilapidated infrastructure. I pondered this last January, when a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines commercial flight on final approach to D.C. Reagan. Congress continues to drag its feet to allocate the estimated $32 billion necessary to upgrade of America’s antiquated Air Traffic Control system, widely deemed as under immense strain and producing a growing number of near misses.

In recent years, federal and state governments have awarded tens of billions in subsidies and tax incentives to develop the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry for the purported goal of combatting “climate change.”

Now, as a result of negligence and indifference, 300 million gallons of raw sewage and wastewater have spilled into the Potomac, which widens into a great tidal estuary before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay—one of the world’s richest ecosystems.

Chesapeake Bay is critically important for Atlantic fisheries, functioning as the nation's largest estuary and a major nursery for species that support a billion-dollar regional economy. The Bay produces ~500 million pounds of seafood annually, including blue crab, oysters, and striped bass, and is the primary nursery for Atlantic menhaden

Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) are small, schooling, nutrient-rich forage fish (8–15 inches) found along the U.S. East Coast from Florida to Nova Scotia. Known as pogy, bunker, or shad, they are essential filter feeders that eat phytoplankton, providing a critical food source for larger predators like striped bass, bluefish, and osprey. Now 300 million gallons of sewage and wastewater are headed to the Chesapeake Bay and will certainly cause algae blooms, fish kills, and foul the water for sailors and bathers.

The Potomac sewage spill should be regarded as gigantic, putrid symbol of the abominable corruption and incompetence of the U.S. federal government, which simultaneously meddles in the affairs of mankind while failing to attend to its most essential duties.

My contempt for the U.S. government is now so great that I find the English language insufficient to express it. Only Latin, with its stately and monumental quality, can convey the full odium and obloquy the government deserves.

O regimen Civitatum Foederatarum, monstrum foedum, res es ludibrii, contemptus, et odii.