Fact Check: Yes, RFK Jr. took grandkids swimming in sewage-contaminated creek on Mother's Day 2025
Claim:
U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr swam with his grandchildren in a sewage-contaminated creek on Mother's Day 2025.
Rating:
In May 2025, a rumor began to spread that U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took his grandchildren swimming in a creek rife with fecal bacteria on Mother's Day.
For example, the creator of one TikTok video mocked Kennedy. "You can't even swim there," the user said. "It's gross! It's nasty, poopoo, gross, polluted, yucky-icky water!":
The video had garnered 11,200 likes and nearly 70,000 views as of this writing. The claim spread further on TikTok as well as on X and Facebook.
Indeed, the claim that Kennedy took his grandchildren swimming in a creek closed to swimmers and waders due to high levels of bacteria found in sewage was true.
On May 11, 2025, Kennedy posted on X four photographs of himself and family members posing in a forest and wading in a creek (archived):
The text of his post, which mentioned his eldest son Robert F. Kennedy III, his wife Amaryllis and their children Bobbie "Bobcat" and Cassius, read:
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.
"Kick" referred to the health secretary's daughter Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy. Snopes was unable to determine how the person named Jackson related to the rest of the group.
One of the photographs pictured Kennedy fully immersing himself in the creek's water as his grandchildren looked on:
(X user @RobertKennedyJr)
Another showed his granddaughter splashing him with the creek's water using her bare leg as his grandson remained perched on a rock that emerged from the water, though the color of his trousers indicated he had waded in the water moments before:
(X user @RobertKennedyJr)
Dumbarton Oaks Park is in the heart of Washington, D.C., a 12-minute car ride from the White House according to Google Maps. The park runs along Rock Creek, which flows into the Potomac River less than 1.5 miles away:
Rock Creek crosses Rock Creek Park, a 10-minute car ride north of Dumbarton Oaks Park. (In fact, Dumbarton Oaks Park is a subunit of Rock Creek Park.)
A quick search revealed that the National Park Service has indeed implemented a swim ban in Rock Creek Park. The park's website read (emphasis ours):
Stay safe while enjoying Rock Creek Park! Swimming and wading are not allowed due to high bacteria levels.Stay out of the water to protect streambanks, plants and animals and keep you and your family (including pets!) safe from illness.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!
Further, an article on Planet Forward — a science communication project hosted at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs — indicated the swimming ban had been in effect since 1971, though the city and a nonprofit organization known as the Rock Creek Conservancy have endeavored to clean the creek up.
Still, according to the Washington, D.C., Department Department of Energy and Environment in 2011, "Rock Creek suffers from trash, polluted runoff, sewage overflows, loss of trees, destruction of fish and wildlife habitat, and an influx of invasive non-native vegetation."
More recently, according to a 2024 water monitoring report, monitors placed along Rock Creek found unacceptable levels of the fecal bacteria E. coli in Rock Creek's water along Dumbarton Oak Park, meaning the water is of poor quality for recreational use. "Avoid all water contact at these sites," the report recommended.
Snopes contacted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Park Service to inquire about any unpublished data that may have made swimming in Dumbarton Oaks Park safe. We will update this story should they respond.
"Case Study - Rock Creek Conservancy | Doee." Doee.dc.gov, 2011, doee.dc.gov/service/case-study-rock-creek-conservancy.
District of Columbia Citizen Science Water Quality Monitoring Report 2024. 2024, doee.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/doee/service_content/attachments/DC%2BWQ%2BReport%2B2024_11.22.24%2BFinal%2B%281%29-compressed.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2025.
Kahler, Sophie. "Seeking a Swimmable D.C.: Water Quality Monitoring in Rock Creek." Planet Forward, 22 May 2023, planetforward.org/story/rock-creek-water-quality/. Accessed 14 May 2025.
"Stay Dry Stay Safe - Rock Creek Park (U.S. National Park Service)." Nps.gov, 2022, www.nps.gov/rocr/planyourvisit/stay-dry-stay-safe.htm. Accessed 14 May 2025.
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