The Potomac River ranked first as America’s most endangered river, according to a new report from American Rivers.
The report cited two problems, including the recent sewer line collapse and ensuing sewage spill and “the rapid development of data centers in the watershed.”
“This river, threatened by both data center expansion and pollution, exemplifies how the compounding threats our rivers are facing can collide, creating impacts that can reverberate far downstream,” American Rivers officials said in a statement.
There are more than 290 data centers in operation, with more planned to come to the state of Maryland and they use water from the Potomac, according to the Potomac Conservancy.
The Potomac River is the region’s primary source of drinking water.
The 380-mile river runs from the mountains of West Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay. According to American Rivers, its “watershed spans roughly 14,700 square miles across Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC—connecting forests, farms and major metropolitan areas.”
The Potomac Conservancy declared the river is “near a tipping point.”
On Jan. 19, a 72-inch section of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line, owned and operated by DC Water, collapsed near the Clara Barton Parkway. The breach sent an estimated 243 million gallons of untreated wastewater into the river, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment, which oversees sewer overflow compliance.
