just looked it up. the place he went to was literally 2 miles from the white house, in the middle of a fucking 6 million metropolis. honestly, regardless of what the national park said, who chooses a place like that for a swim and expects it not to be polluted?
Me to be honest. Where, if not in your capital, would you be able to enforce environmental protection of your streams?
Granted our biggest cities are smaller than those of most other countries, but in Zürich, Bern and Basel you see people bathing in the Limmat, Aare and Rhine respectively all the time.
It's sewage infrastructure from the 1800s that needs to be repaired - apparently the pipe cracked. I don't know why it hasn't been fixed yet, that's wild.
I still check if there have been any recent discharges before swimming and I live by the sea where there is a lot more water to dilute it. Must be a lot more concentrated in a river.