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WASHINGTON - DC Water is accelerating emergency repairs on a deteriorated section of the Potomac Interceptor to help protect downstream drinking water infrastructure.
RELATED: Officials testify on Potomac sewage collapse before Congress
What we know:
Inspections found corrosion and exposed rebar in the section at Muddy Branch near Pennyfield Lock, prompting officials to move the repairs.
Work is scheduled to begin June 15 to rehabilitate roughly 1,700 feet of pipe, with construction expected to continue through September 2026.
In the meantime, crews will conduct twice-weekly visual inspections and are installing monitoring equipment designed to detect changes in flow that could signal leakage or a structural failure.
Emergency repairs to begin on deteriorated Potomac Interceptor section (DC Water)
The section carries an average of six million gallons of wastewater a day and sits upstream of WSSC Water’s Potomac Water Filtration Plant and the Washington Aqueduct’s intakes at Great Falls.
"As soon as we identified the severity of the deterioration in this section of the interceptor, we moved quickly to put monitoring and protective measures in place and advance an emergency repair," said Matt Brown, DC Water Chief Operating Officer in a statement.
The Potomac Interceptor ruptured on Jan. 19, sending hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the river just north of the nation’s capital over the first five days.
Testing in the days that followed found E. coli levels nearly 12,000 times higher than what is considered safe for human contact.
The Source: Information in this article comes from DC Water, the Associated Press and previous FOX 5 reporting.