Maryland watermen say 240M gallon spill has ‘devastated’ their market even as officials say water safe
A massive sewage spill that sent more than 200 million gallons of raw wastewater into the Potomac River is still rippling through the region’s seafood industry, even as officials say water quality is improving — and just as the region heads into peak oyster season.
The Potomac Interceptor pipe in Montgomery County, Maryland, collapsed Jan. 19, spewing an estimated 240 million gallons of sewage into the Potomac, a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.
“It has devastated our market,” Robert T. Brown, president of the Maryland Watermen’s Association, told WTOP News. “The people who shuck the oysters and stuff and ship them to different states don’t want [any] oysters coming out of the Potomac because they [are] afraid of what it may be.”