The Potomac River is the most endangered river in the country, according to a
The organization cited two factors in its decision: January’s historic sewage spill that sent hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage flowing into the river, and the expanding footprint of data centers in the D.C. area that threaten water availability and quality, according to American Rivers.
“We’ve made a lot of progress on improving the health of the Potomac in the past many decades. And then in January, when the Potomac Interceptor collapsed, it set it back quite a bit. It’s not going to bounce right back,” Pat Calvert, Virginia conservation director for American Rivers, told 海角精品黑料.
“Fortunately, we do believe that it’s going to be able to recover from that. But how many more infrastructure collapses can or should a river endure?” he added.
Advocates for a clean and healthy Potomac River have reported dangerously high levels of E. coli in at least one creek near the site of the Potomac Interceptor’s failure in the months after it happened. D.C. officials, meanwhile, lifted their recreational advisory for the river in early March, saying bacteria levels are within safe ranges in the Potomac River itself.
While water quality testing is听frequently听done to measure the impacts of the sewage spill, measuring the impact of data centers is more difficult.
“We don’t really have a cumulative assessment of how all these data centers 鈥� there are a lot of them 鈥� are impacting water quality and water quantity. They’re very thirsty, hot facilities that use a lot of water and a lot of other resources as well. So we need to make certain that we’re not approving these without full assessment of their impacts,” Calvert said.
New data center development may put additional strain on the river and its existing infrastructure.
The two threats to the river go hand in hand in a way, Calvert said.
American Rivers is advocating for rigorous monitoring of those impacts and a commitment to investing in infrastructure before rushing to approve more data centers.
“We really need Congress to reauthorize critical water infrastructure funding bills that will help localities, including D.C., to avoid collapses of major infrastructure. So this includes the bill and the sewage overflow and stormwater grant programs; they have to be reauthorized by September of this year,” Calvert said.
“And I believe the state leaders in Maryland and Virginia should ensure that data center development doesn’t outstrip the region’s ability to protect its water supplies.”
The D.C. region is home to more than 300 data centers. That number is projected to grow exponentially in the coming years. According to American Rivers, that development is happening without watershed-wide analysis, leaving the scale of impacts from data centers on the river unclear.
American Rivers said now is the time to advocate for the strongest possible protections for the river.
“In many cases, there is little to no requirement for advanced stormwater treatment, long-term remediation planning, or disclosure of water use and discharge data for projects. Many proposed facilities are upstream of drinking water intakes that serve millions of people,” the organization .
海角精品黑料’s Sarah Jacobs contributed to this report.
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