Season 13 • Episode 1012

1012 - A "Giant Geyser of Poop" Along the Potomac River

Feb 18, 2026

15:54

Episode Description

About this episode:

A pipe collapse outside of D.C. has spilled nearly 300 million gallons of sewage into the Potomac River. Recent frigid temperatures and long-term infrastructure challenges are making cleanup a formidable job. In this episode: Natalie Exum of the Johns Hopkins University Water Institute talks about the spill, its health impacts, and whether it could have been prevented.

Guests:

Natalie Exum, PhD, MS, is an assistant professor of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an affiliate of the Johns Hopkins University Water Institute.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

Potomac Interceptor Collapse—DC Water
UMD team finds E. coli, MRSA in Potomac River after sewage spill—University of Maryland School of Public Health
Millions of Gallons of Raw Sewage Spill Into the Potomac River—New York Times

Transcript information:

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