A Virginia boater filed a class-action lawsuit against DC Water in federal court in Maryland over a Jan. 19 collapse of a sewer pipe that leaked raw sewage into the Potomac River, according to the complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. The plaintiff is Nicholas Lailas, who is identified as a Virginia resident and recreational boater using the river. The lawsuit seeks compensation on behalf of people the filing says were harmed by the leak.
The complaint centers on DC Water’s responsibility for the Potomac Interceptor, the pipe that ruptured, and it characterizes the spill as environmental blight. It says DC Water, as owner and operator of the ruptured pipe, was responsible for maintaining the Potomac Interceptor in a “reasonably safe condition” and for preventing foreseeable harm to persons and property.
Lailas is suing as part of the class, and the suit alleges that preliminary data show thousands of people own property or vessels in affected parts of the Potomac. In an interview Monday, the plaintiff’s attorney, Andrew Levetown, said the case will take time to develop the full breadth of who qualifies, including business owners, property owners and recreational users who claim potential damages tied to the spill.
Levetown said businesses could lose customers and revenue because clients would instead be dealing with what he described as sewage conditions along the river. “You’re going to have businesses who lose business because instead of sitting next to the Potomac, their clients are sitting next to the open sewer,” he said.
DC Water did not disclose a specific damage figure in response to the filing, and the complaint itself did not specify a damage amount. DC Water spokesperson John Lisle said in a statement that the collapse of the Potomac Interceptor was “a serious and unexpected event,” that the utility’s teams remain focused on response, environmental protection and restoration, and that the company would not comment further because the case is subject to ongoing litigation.
The lawsuit arrives weeks after the pipe collapse, which officials described as occurring just north of Washington, D.C., and prompting political disputes about how the spill response should be handled. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser declared an emergency Feb. 18 and requested that President Donald Trump provide federal resources to help the city address the leak, and the president approved the emergency assistance days later.
DC Water previously said it knew the pipe—first installed in the 1960s—was deteriorating and that rehabilitation work began in September on a segment about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the break. The utility said that work recently ended and that the segment that ruptured had been scheduled for repair this summer.
DC Water’s updates on repairs have said emergency work was beyond halfway and that there were no flows into the river at the time of those reports. At a public briefing last week, DC Water CEO David Gadis said it was too early to say definitively what caused the rupture, but he said officials were “seeing indication that this incident may have been highly unusual.”
The class-action suit is pending, with the court set to determine whether the allegations in the complaint—and DC Water’s obligations for maintaining and operating the Potomac Interceptor—entitle the plaintiff and proposed class to damages.