Washington, D.C.'s other river, the Anacostia, is prettier after dozens of volunteers spent a recent weekend fishing rusted bicycles, twisted panels of sheet metal and other debris from its murky waters.
But the river is still far from healthy.
Washington and Prince George's County, Md., face a long, tough, expensive slog in cleaning up stormwater that flushes grit and grime, pesticides, petroleum and trash into the river, said Josh Klein, national cleanup coordinator for American Rivers, which sponsored the Anacostia sweep.
"A lot of it has to do with people making smart decisions in terms of development and also knowing how a watershed works," Klein said. "When you drop a candy wrapper or a bottle or a cigarette butt onto the street ... all the trash on the ground will eventually get washed to storm drains and will end up in the Anacostia."
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| A volunteer hauls garbage and tree branches out of the Anacostia River in Riverdale Park, Md. Photo courtesy of American Rivers. |
Worse, downpours sometimes overwhelm sewer systems in the watershed, releasing untreated sewage -- a carrier of bacteria, heavy metals, suspended solids and nutrients.
Nearly 2 billion gallons of stormwater wash into the Anacostia each year, said Steve Saari, an environmental protection specialist with the D.C. Department of the Environment.
"Stormwater is hot, fast and dirty," Saari said in an interview. "That's great if you're on a first date, but it's not good" for the Anacostia.
Saari and other district officials are hoping to mitigate the problem with a large, sustainable development project in low-income neighborhoods near the river and smaller initiatives aimed at teaching residents about how to keep the river clean.
Environmentalists say the focus on the river and the Anacostia neighborhood, which is home to some of the city's worst pollution and highest crime rates, is a welcome change. The Anacostia River has long played second fiddle to the famous Potomac River, which flows through the capital and is known as "the nation's river."
"It took some pretty dire circumstances for the region to realize that the Anacostia needs a lot of help," Klein said. "Aerial photography showed the confluence where the Anacostia meets the Potomac. You could see a coloration difference in the water. Things like that did wake up the city."
The Anacostia flows 8.4 miles from Washington's Maryland surburbs to its mouth at the Potomac River near downtown Washington. Its watershed encompasses 176 square miles and is home to more than 800,000 people.
The D.C. Anacostia Waterfront Initiative Framework Plan, which is expected to create thousands of jobs for the neighborhood, focuses on redeveloping the district's Southwest waterfront, a 47-acre site along the Washington Channel.
The Southwest Waterfront Small Area Plan, approved by the D.C. City Council in 2003, includes 14 acres of parks and open space and a mix of maritime activities, shops and 300 units of low-income housing. Small businesses will receive about $140 million of an estimated $400 million in total contracts over seven years under the plan.
The effort will bring "sustainable jobs that reflect a new green economy," said Anita Hairston, spokeswoman for the D.C. planning office.
Nationals Park, the new $611 million, publicly financed stadium for Washington's Major League Baseball team, is built on land that drains to the Anacostia. The stadium is the first in the nation to attain LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (Greenwire, March 28).
Among its features: A layer of carbon under the playing field is aimed at filtering fertilizer and other toxics before groundwater reaches the river. Plants and soil on the left-field concession area's 6,300-square-foot roof also help cleanse and reduce stormwater runoff.
The city is also developing Washington Canal Park to link Capitol Hill with the Anacostia River trail and replace parking lots with gardens and recreation areas. The park will be a centerpiece for a high-density, mixed-use development district that includes a new U.S. Transportation Department building, which will have one of the country's largest green roofs, with an area of 68,000 square feet.
There will also be a 20-mile riverwalk between the National Arboretum and the Tidal Basin. Congress allocated $10 million for the trail, a project shared by the district and the National Park Service. When complete, it will link 1,200 acres of green spaces.
"Having opportunities for a more walkable community that will contribute to the health and wellness of residents in the area, create access to parks and open space ... will create a lot of benefit for residents in and around the Anacostia," Hairston said.
The city's plan also aims to restore wetlands on the Anacostia's Kingman and Heritage islands. The plan calls for creating a 45-acre park on the islands, which the Army Corps of Engineers built in 1916 from dredge spoils.
The project also proposes creating an environmental education center on the islands where visitors can learn about Anacostia restoration efforts.
Environmental cleanups in low-income areas pose challenges, said Ramon Cruz, a senior policy analyst with the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund.
Many low-income neighborhoods have a high rates of air and water pollution because they are usually found near highways and congested areas, Cruz said. Interstate 295, or the Anacostia Freeway, for example, runs through the heart of the Anacostia neighborhood.
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| Volunteers search for trash on the banks of the Anacostia in Riverdale Park, Md. Photo courtesy of American Rivers. |
"Most cities concentrate facilities that have become, in recent decades, the burdens of society -- like waste-transfer stations and sewage-treatment plants and bus depots -- in low-income communities," Cruz said.
"There are ways to shape those facilities to become better neighbors than is the status quo right now," he said.
The key in Washington may be green development efforts in Anacostia, American Rivers' Klein said. "Development is only a problem when it's not done wisely," he said.
Crime is also a problem for many low-income areas. In Anacostia, for example, the 77-acre Marvin Gaye Park, named for the iconic Motown singer who was born in Washington, was nicknamed "Needle Park" for its popularity with drug users.
When volunteers first began cleaning up the park, about seven years ago, they picked up 9,000 needles, said Behnam Mehrabkhani, who coordinates volunteer restoration efforts there. Mehrabkhani works for Washington Parks & People, which has an agreement with the D.C. Parks and Recreation Department to maintain the park.
The group is building a new $3.5 million trail through the park. The district also is working on improving access to the site and the planned Anacostia Riverwalk from the Kenilworth/Parkside neighborhood.
"We're bringing a beautiful park back to life," Mehrabkhani said. "We used to have a heroin market here. Now, we have a farmer's market."
Dennis Chestnut, who is coordinating efforts to clean Watts Branch, an Anacostia tributary, said there are also plans to start a tree nursery and hire neighborhood people to maintain the park and work with at-risk youth.
"We just have to keep hammering until the message gets across, not just to officials, but to households, schools and ordinary citizens," Chestnut said. "That shows progress is going to be made."
Greg Drury, director of the environmental group Wholeness for Humanity, leads eco-tours through Anacostia that showcase a number of green initiatives in the neighborhood in hopes of spreading news about progress in the neighborhood and around the D.C. metropolitan area.
Such publicity is key, he said, to bridging the gap between wealthy areas and poorer neighborhoods.
"For years and years and years, people turned their backs on the Anacostia," said Saari, the D.C. environmental official. "But now people are beginning to embrace it, take pride in it."
The D.C. government is trying to enlist the neighborhood in an effort to help prevent filthy stormwater from flowing into the river. Rather than build basins and install pipes to hold excess stormwater, which would cost about $2 billion, Saari said, the city is focusing on smaller initiatives.
The RiverSmart Homes program provides as much as $1,200 for homeowners to use innovative landscaping to control stormwater. Using rain barrels, open areas for soaking up water and additional trees can help keep dirty water out of the river. The city expects to help renovate between 150 and 300 homes in Ward 7, which is bordered on the west by the Anacostia River, by July 2009.
"It's all stuff anyone could do," Saari said. "It's very low-tech."
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