It goes without saying that there are many, many (many) problems with the concept of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Just to name a few:

• DEI is inherently racist toward white people, and you don’t combat perceived racism with actual racism.
• DEI completely neuters the value of merit.
• DEI quite literally fosters division.

But there’s another major issue with DEI that’s not discussed nearly as much as the aforementioned bullet points.

That issue is: opportunity cost.

At the end of the day, DEI is a government program/initiative that requires government resources to fund and operate. And resources, by definition, are finite.

An obsessive, expensive DEI program — like the ones pushed in deep-blue Washington, D.C. — is naturally going to take resources from other places while handing those resources to people who don’t deserve it.

And that can lead to some damning consequences.

According to Fox News, on Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a disaster emergency over a massive sewage spill in the Potomac.

The outlet added: “The sewage spill has now become the largest in U.S. history, dumping over 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River.”

Bowser had written to President Donald Trump requesting additional federal resources to help combat this disaster.

(For what it’s worth, Trump may be inspired to work with Democrats to clean this up, given the potential ramifications of having a smelly Potomac for America’s 250th birthday celebration.)

As The Washington Times noted, however, you can actually trace this historic sewage spill back to … 2018 and the height of DEI.

“The District of Columbia hired David Gadis as CEO and general manager of DC Water in 2018 after he lied to Flint, Michigan, residents that their water was safe to drink, even though it was contaminated with lead,” wrote Washington Examiner columnist Kelly Sadler. “Why? Diversity.”

Apparently, Gadis was hired because he is a black man. And one of his first moves as CEO? To fire his white, male executives, and replace them with people whose resumes may as well have read, “Non-white, please hire.”

Gadis also oversaw $520 million worth of DEI projects.

That’s a lot of time and money that could’ve gone to … maybe preventing the Potomac from becoming a toxic sewer?

“DC Water focused more on DEI and environmental justice than on oversight, repair work and maintenance of the sewer lines,” Sadler said. “Dozens of DEI programs were created, with multiple officials and offices overseeing initiatives such as ‘unconscious bias.’

“Under Mr. Gadis’ leadership, the utility focused on supplier diversity, inclusion councils, training, outreach, compliance goals and internal equity practices.”

Are we really supposed to believe that things like “supplier diversity” are going to help maintain sewage pipeline integrity? Come on. If anything, the only surprise is that it took this long for disaster to strike, when DC Water has been DEI-obsessed since 2018.

This is what opportunity cost looks like in the real world. When government agencies prioritize ideological box-checking over core competencies, something else inevitably slips. In this case, it wasn’t a memo or a mission statement — it was basic sewer maintenance in the nation’s capital.

Bureaucracies only have so much money, manpower, and managerial focus to go around, and every dollar spent on “inclusion councils” or bias seminars is a dollar not spent inspecting pipes, upgrading infrastructure, or stress-testing aging systems.

You can debate DEI theory in a university lecture hall. But when raw sewage is pouring into the Potomac River in record volumes, and the mayor of Washington, D.C. is pleading for federal help, the opportunity cost stops being abstract. It becomes visible, measurable, and foul-smelling.

The government exists to provide core services first. When it forgets that — when ideology outruns competence — the consequences have a rather dire way of surfacing.

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.