To paraphrase Hamlet: “Something is rotten in the District of Columbia.” More specifically, the EPA.

The metaphor surely writes itself, but the Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., is reportedly facing a serious sewage problem, according to E&E News (paywall). It’s so bad, in fact, that black sludge–read: poop–is allegedly leaking out of the state organization’s water fountains.

“There’s sewage covering the floors in the north building of headquarters,” an EPA employee told E&E News. The report continues: “Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, said he was told “a sewer problem at EPA HQ has resulted in poop exploding out of water fountains” outside the policy office.”

Leaking poop isn’t the only thing tarnishing the agency either. Mother Jones reports that the EPA has hired a Republican-affiliated public relations firm that “specializes in digging up opposition research to help Administrator Scott Pruitt’s office track and shape press coverage of the agency.” So while this firm is digging up dirt as a way to circumvent external scrutiny, EPA employees will be literally digging up dirt … and other gross things.CGW

https://www.fastcompany.com/40508693/mother-natures-revenge-the-epas-office-is-reportedly-leaking-sewage