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Environment


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March 12, 2026

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

  • The EPA says more than $600 billion is needed for flooding and clean water upgrades over the next two decades.
    • By MICHAEL PHILLIS and M.K. WILDEMAN
    Associated Press

    AP Photo/Michael Phillis [enlarge]
    Cones sit near an area of Baltimore that previously suffered a sewage backup. The city has seen hundreds of sewer overflows in recent years.

    WASHINGTON — 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.


     
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