Human waste backing up in basements is a gut-churning sign of US infrastructure problems

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MICHAEL PHILLIS and M.K. WILDEMAN
Updated 5:04 PM CDT, March 10, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — The January collapse of a pipe as wide as a car dumped so much sewage into the Potomac River that officials tracked a spike of gut-wrenching bacteria drifting slowly past Washington for weeks, prompting an emergency declaration and federal assistance.

It was a disaster of historic scale — 244 million gallons (924 million liters) spilled — spotlighting the severe consequences of old, failing infrastructure. But smaller sewer overflows that draw far less notice are common. Tens of thousands occur every year across the U.S., contaminating rivers, flooding streets and sometimes causing backups into homes that threaten human health.

“It’s really one of those out of sight, out of mind problems that doesn’t rise to the top until it becomes a crisis,” said Alice Volpitta, the Baltimore Harbor waterkeeper with the nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore.

At least 18.7 million people are served by one of roughly 1,000 utilities that are in serious violation of pollution limits. At least 2.7 million live with a system that violated federal clean water rules continually over the last three years, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/sewage-overflows-potomac-epa-water-trump-baltimore-be71eea20324a911142e1d0dfe627fa4

[C Moon]

1. Back to the 1860s when the Potomac River stunk.

[fujiyamasan]

2. MOAR $$$$ for WARRRRRR!!!!

And for Israel of course,

[stopdiggin]

5. thing is, even when we are NOT at war - and (ostensibly) HAVE money

we tend not to spend it on things like this.
And, a lot of the time, with local government being at the head of the stinking pile ....

[at140]

3. Humans should copy how China deals with sewage

They collect poop for fertilizer instead of processing it and flushing it down to the sea via rivers.

[blue-wave]

4. How does China

filter out all the drugs, illegal and prescription in the poop? How about diseases that humans carry? There have been instances of hepatitis outbreaks because of field workers peeing on the lettuce (Way out in the field, there are no bathrooms).

[stopdiggin]

6. and kind of a dumb ass idea, when looking at a city of 10 million ....

or. when it comes right down to it - even for a village of 10 thousand ...

[at140]

11. Fertilizer is NOT consumed by Humans LOL

Poop fertilizer is used for plants. Plants do not care about illegal drugs. Plants have the best filtration system. Plant roots absorb only the nutrients useful for itself.

[blue-wave]

12. And if the plants are not properly

sanitized and cleaned and contaminated fertilizer is still on the plant in trace amounts, then what?

And no one said (LOL!!!) that humans should or do consume fertilizer. We're just thinking a little deeper on the topic.

[at140]

13. I wash every produce bought!!

They spray insect killers on fruits, dirty hands of customers touch produce in grocery stores, the field pickers do not wash hands after pooping etc. Always wash every produce item from stores.

[blue-wave]

16. I agree, but

some people do not wash their produce. Some companies do not properly wash produce. What do you use to wash it with? Will it kill all the bugs that harm humans? Every year there are way too many of recalls and outbreaks due to pathogens in our food supply for me to be comfortable with using human waste as fertilizer in farming. I advise caution on this so as to not exacerbate the situation.

[at140]

17. I must be doing something right because

At age 86, I do not have a single health issue. No chronic diseases, no aches or pains in my body. Washing fruits and veggies in kitchen sink tap water must be adequate because I can't even remember getting digestive issues from eating produce. Just for your personal benefit, because you seem to be a good person, real secret of my amazing health is 1. daily mild exercise for 30 minutes, as simple as a brisk walk, I do this 365 days every year, and 2. keeping my weight in normal range. Food is necessary for life but excess food is slow poison. I am 5'-8" and keep my weight under 150 lbs. If I gain a couple of pounds during a vacation, first priority is to shed the lbs gained.

[LeftInTX]

15. The plants absorb the toxins and you eat them!

Animals also eat the grass and grains from this and you eat the eggs, the beef....

You can wash plants until you're blue in the face, but the toxins are located inside the plants!

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Americans dump all kinds of unnatural stuff down their sewers -- paper (not a fertilizer), plastic, drain cleaners, ...

antiseptics (germ killers), caustics, solvents -- and that's just the stuff that's INTENDED to go down the drain from the minute it's made ! None of that stuff is good for plants, or for the bacteria that digest sewage in treatment plants. On top of that, people (and businesses) will dump just about anything down the drain, even stuff that's illegal -- old paint, paint thinner, pesticides (really bad for bacteria), herbicides (really bad for plants). And yes, drugs. And infectious waste. Both drugs and disease can be tracked by monitoring municipal sewage -- it's become an important disease-tracking tool, especially since the COVID pandemic. If Americans collected their poop in buckets and barrels and bins and took it straight to the fields that would be one thing (but still got to worry about infectious waste) but the problems of a modern municipal sewage system are orders of magnitude more complicated.

[LeftInTX]

14. They used to do this in the US. We can always go back in time!

They called them sewage farms.



And they still do.....causing animals and soil to turn toxic with forever chemicals. Maybe that's OK in China, but we can do better in the US.

[flvegan]

8. Good news! The Potomac is only the drinking water source for millions of people!

Everything is fine! It's all fine!

No harm, no foul. Right? RIGHT??

[not fooled]

9. Tax cuts for the rich, not infrastructure

Starting in earnest with that evil old bastard reagan, money to maintain the nation as a first-world country has been looted in the form of tax cuts for the wealthy.

[Miguelito Loveless]

10. Oh look,

The RFK jr Water Park finally opened.