Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared photos of him and his family stopping to take a dip in a Washington D.C. river, despite the body of water having an active health warning due to sewage contamination.
In the photos posted Sunday, Kennedy shared that he, his kids and grandchildren went on a hike in Rock Creek Park before stopping for a swim. The health secretary could be seen dunking himself completely in the river.
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. pic.twitter.com/TXowaSMTFY
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 11, 2025
However, Rock Creek has had an active health advisory warning against swimming in the river since October 2022.
“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!” a notice by the National Park Service reads.
While monitoring the water in 2022, “chronic elevated levels” of E.coli were discovered in Rock Creek, according to a city report. The concerns about the water quality date back even further after a 2002 D.C. Water and Sewer Authority report found “fecal coliform” bacteria, which originated from sewage, in the creek.
Contamination in various D.C. bodies of water has been of public health concern for decades, as the city banned swimming in Rock Creek as well as the Potomac River in 1971, NBC News reported.
RFK Jr. has not yet publicly addressed the reports that the water he swam in was contaminated.
Originally published on Latin Times