RFK Jr. swims in DC’s Rock Creek, which flows with waste water and bacteria

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Health SecretaryPost photos on Sunday of themselves and his grandchildren swim in a polluted Washington Creek where swimming is not allowed because it is used for sewer drainage.

Rock Creek, which flows through a large part of the northwest of Washington, is used to Leave excess waste water and rainwater during rainfall. The creek has Widespread “fecale” infection and high levels of bacteria, Including E. coliand the city has forbidden swimming in all its waterways More than 50 years because of the widespread contamination of Rock Creek and other nearby rivers.

“Rock Creek has high levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens who make swimming, wading and other contact with the water a danger to human (and pet) health,” The National Park Service Written in an advice on her website and added: “All district waterways are subject to a swimming ban – this also means wading!”

But Mr. In the weekend, Kennedy shared photos of herself Swimming in Rock Creek, with one image that shows him completely immersed in the water. Mr Kennedy said in the Social Media Post that he had gone for swimming in Rock Creek during a Mother’s Day walk in Dumbarton Oaks Park with his family – including his grandchildren, who are also seen on the photos swimming in the polluted water.

Dumbarton Oaks Park is downstream of Piney Branch, a tributary of Rock Creek who receives around 40 million liters of untreated sewer and rainwater transfer every year, according to the DC water and sewer authority. The city authorities are planning to build a tunnel that will reduce the amount of sewerage that flows in Piney Branch and Rock Creek.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy did not respond to a request for comments.

It was the latter in a series of special incidents with regard to Mr. Kennedy’s outdoors.

As a teenager in the 1970s, Mr. Kennedy earned A reputation like a reckless adventurerEating Bushmeat and permanent diseases on a trip to South America and on African safaris. He later earned fame for his handling of the carcasses of dead animals – including a whale and one baby bear.

Mr. Kennedy also said that a parasitic worm had “I got into my brain and ate part of it and died then.”