Groups focused on cleaning up the Anacostia River in the District of Columbia say they’re finally getting traction on key components of a cleanup effort that has moved in fits and starts for decades. In February, seven of these groups, including the Anacostia Watershed Society and Anacostia Riverkeeper, joined forces to form a new coalition called United for a Healthy Anacostia River. The coalition’s first goal was to review — and bring to the public’s attention — a key draft plan released by the District Department of the Environment at the end of January.
The long-awaited plan lays out a framework for cleaning toxins from the bottom sediments of the Anacostia River, a step that many have called the “third leg” of the cleanup in and along this waterway, along with efforts to reduce polluted stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflows in the city.
“We think that finally progress is being made on all three fronts,” said Brooke DeRenzis, project director at DC Appleseed, a nonprofit that taps into a team of pro-bono lawyers to address public policy issues.
DC Appleseed first suggested that a plan to address legacy toxins should be part of a holistic approach to restoring the Anacostia River in a 2011 report. Contaminants in the river include PCBs, arsenic and heavy metals, which make the river unsafe for swimming or harvesting fish (although a study early last year found that as many as 17,000 people could still be eating fish from the river, some of them out of hunger).
The sources of these contaminants already were being addressed along the river’s shore through a half-dozen superfund cleanup projects in various stages at sites like the Washington Navy Yard and Kenilworth Park landfill. DeRenzis said her organization recognized the merits of these projects but noted that they don’t address toxic sediment that may have moved to other parts the river.
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