Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was criticized after taking his grandchildren swimming in an unsafe creek with a high bacteria count because of sewage runoff.
In a post to X on Sunday, Kennedy revealed that he spent Mother's Day swimming with his family in Washington, D.C.'s Rock Creek.
"Mother's Day hike in Dumbarton Oaks Park with Amaryllis, Bobby, Kick, and Jackson, and a swim with my grandchildren, Bobcat and Cassius in Rock Creek," the secretary wrote.
The Washingtonian noted that the waterway was dangerous because sewage flows directly into it.
"[O]n July 14, 2015, the D.C. Department of Energy and the Environment found bacteria levels over 2,420 times the most probable number of colonies in 100 milliliters (MPN)," environmental consultant Marchant Wentworth pointed out in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. "This is far in excess of the Environmental Protection Agency standard of 410 MPN."
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The National Park Service officially forbids swimming and wading in the creek.
"Swimming and wading are not allowed due to high bacteria levels," the agency's website warned. "Stay out of the water to protect streambanks, plants and animals and keep you and your family (including pets!) safe from illness."
"Rock Creek has high levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens that make swimming, wading, and other contact with the water a hazard to human (and pet) health. Please protect yourself and your pooches by staying on trails and out of the creek. All District waterways are subject to a swim ban - this means wading, too!"
Just what we want. The top public health official in the US government telling people it's okay to swim in a waterway with an extremely high bacteria count (due to sewage run-off) that has numerous warning signs declaring swimming and wading are unsafe and prohibited.
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— David Corn (@davidcorn.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 9:53 AM