As the sewage spills, the politicians snipe

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Everyone agrees that a spill of nearly 250 million gallons of raw sewage is an ecological emergency and an environmental disaster. But not even hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage dumped into the Potomac River can bring the American political parties together.

Nobody yet knows the full extent of the damage caused by a ruptured pipe on federal land in Maryland upstream from Washington, DC, in January. Drinking water was not affected by the rupture, according to DC Water. Authorities have scrambled to slow the spill and divert sewage into the area’s historic canal system. But testing earlier this month showed elevated levels of bacteria up to 9 miles downstream of the spill.

Rather than joining forces, the federal government, following President Donald Trump’s lead, is beefing with local authorities, in particular Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, about when and how federal assistance is required.

Trump really wants to blame local governments and for Moore to ask him for help, as he made clear in a series of social media posts.

“If they can’t do the job, all they have to do is call, be polite and respectful, and the Federal Government will handle it, and bill them for services rendered, at a later date,” Trump said Thursday on social media, referring to Maryland and Virginia.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday during a White House briefing that local officials, by law, must request help “so that the federal government can go and take control of this local infrastructure that has been abandoned and neglected by Governor Moore in Maryland for far too long.”

The Stafford Act, the 1974 law Leavitt cited, does refer to presidents declaring states of emergency at the request of a governor.

Moore responded to an earlier version of Trump’s request during an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Thursday.

“If the president wants me to ask nicely — here’s my nice ask of the president: Mr. President, please do your job,” Moore said. The request does not appear to have been enough for Trump.

Also asking for help Wednesday was DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has taken a more tactical approach in her interactions with Trump. She declared a state of emergency over the spill and wrote a letter formally asking for federal support with a specific list of requests, including federal reimbursement for the cost of cleanup, an Army Corps of Engineers assessment of the breach and long-term investments in DC Water’s water treatment facilities.

For Americans used to seeing reports of the Trump administration sending the National Guard or immigration authorities into states without the approval of local authorities, it may seem like a pivot for Trump to now want Moore to directly ask for help dealing with the sewage spill.

Moore argued the federal government is already responsible since the pipe in question belongs to DC Water and sits on federal land.

“The area that we’re talking about — that has been under federal control for the past century. And so, any indication or any insinuation that somehow this is a Maryland issue or Virginia issue is ridiculous,” he said, adding he has ordered Maryland officials to help respond to the crisis in order to address safety concerns and to be neighborly.

“I believe in actually helping our neighbors,” he said.

Moore is not currently running for president, but he is a rising star in the Democratic Party and is widely expected to consider a run in 2028. That national profile could have something to do with Trump’s decision to insult him over the water issue. Trump has also clashed with Moore over rebuilding the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. At one point, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding to rebuild the major traffic artery. Trump also broke precedent when he refused to invite Moore and Colorado’s Jared Polis to a normally bipartisan dinner with governors.

Trump also may want to draw attention to the fact that FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, the massive agency that is currently operating without funding, which is commonly referred to as a “shutdown,” even though the work still must get done.

“These Democrat caused Disasters, both River and Shutdown, will only get worse,” Trump said on Truth Social, although there’s no evidence the spill was caused by Democrats. On Capitol Hill, Democrats want restrictions on the tactics of immigration authorities written into law before they will approve an annual funding bill.

CNN’s Gabe Cohen wrote about the effect the funding lapse is having on FEMA, where a travel freeze has been imposed on workers, effectively putting a halt to most new disaster deployments.

That reporting is at odds with what Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday, when he argued “true Patriots” from the agency would respond in DC and Maryland.

This is clearly a message the Trump administration wants to convey.

Cohen pointed out that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tweeted, “Democrats in Congress have shut down @FEMA funding — leaving our hard working employees to work without pay — yet FEMA is now stepping in to coordinate cleanup of one of the largest raw sewage spills in U.S. history.”

At the same time, FEMA, as Trump and Moore both suggested, has not deployed resources to help control the spill or address the contamination. As of Thursday, FEMA’s daily briefing still indicated the agency was “monitoring” the spill.

Noem and, to a lesser extent, Trump have previously suggested severely cutting FEMA, which is already in the midst of a heavy-handed overhaul at the hands of Noem and DHS. They want states to largely address their own disaster relief, but those ideas are in flux after the White House abruptly canceled a December meeting of a special task force assembled by Trump.

Moore has also argued the sewage spill is largely contained and that FEMA should be approving funds it refused to give Maryland after catastrophic flooding last year. Moore said at the time that withholding the funds was a political move.

Trump has viewed disaster relief as something that should be doled out directly by him, and there is evidence he prefers to give money to states that support him politically. Separately, DHS tried to withhold FEMA grant money from states run by Democrats over their immigration policies, but a federal judge intervened last December.

Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin was more even-keeled about the sewage spill in his description of the disaster in a Tuesday tweet.

He noted that DC Water has been leading the cleanup effort and Maryland has been helping with regulatory oversight, but he pointed out neither the state nor the city had, as of Tuesday, requested support.

“We are ALWAYS ready to lead and assist with our exceptional agency team!!” he said on X.

At the same time, Zeldin has tried to reorient the EPA to focus on helping US businesses by cutting regulations.