WaPost Profiles Troubled Anacostia River

The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold wrote a great piece (“Troubled waters” with accompanying photo gallery) yesterday tracking clean-up efforts in the Anacostia River and its watershed. He finds it’s a mixed bag: There’s less raw sewage going into the river now compared to 10 years ago, and as a result less algae. But he writes, “more than half of its brown bullhead catfish have tumors on their livers, from a life rooting in the chemical-laden sediment.”

Fahrenthold raises some good points, such as how stormwater runoff – that’s rainfall in common speak – is one major problem, because it washes all kinds of trash, pet waste and road chemicals into the river. He discusses how the bag tax in D.C. will help pay to clean up the river – to a point. It might not be enough to totally clean it up – so at what point should the city be content, when the river is mostly clean or not so dirty?

Even if you don’t live near the Anacostia River, cleaning it up is still important, because it flows into the Potomac, which empties into the Chesapeake Bay. These waterways provide natural and economic benefits to us, and shouldn’t a river be swimmable and fishable anyhow?

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Note: This story is the first in a Post series called "Unfinished Business: The Environment 40 Years After Earth Day"