It takes a watershed
The Anacostia Watershed Society battles to restore our polluted tributaries
by Kirk Talbott
Most of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and the District of Columbia lie within a large watershed of 176 square miles defined by the Anacostia River, often called the “poor sister” of the Potomac. The Anacostia Watershed, pristine and fecund in wildlife when European settlers arrived, suffered centuries of neglect and industrial abuse. By the 1980s, it was recognized as one of the most ecologically degraded and polluted waterways in the entire country.
While many organizations — including Takoma Park’s Friends of Sligo Creek with its intrepid weed warriors and dedicated community activists — have helped begin to restore the watershed, the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS) has galvanized a resurgent pride in the Anacostia and mobilized tens of thousands of citizens and millions of dollars towards positive action.
As Earth Day approaches, this is a good time to celebrate the work of AWS and consider supporting its efforts, including through participation in its annual Earth Day celebration, held this year on Saturday, April 26.
The first recorded European venture up the Anacostia River was led by the famous Captain John Smith. Exactly 400 years ago, in 1608, Smith led a remarkable voyage by oar and sail 2500 miles up and down the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. He and his crew were amazed by the richness of the Anacostia and its wildlife.
By the 18th century, the shorelines of the Anacostia were filling with settlements. Soon, deforestation and small industries caused rapid sedimentation and fundamentally transformed the wild and beautiful river. At Bladensburg, the river depth was reduced from 30 feet to less than four, and oceangoing vessels were no longer able to navigate up from the Potomac.
The next 200 years saw increasing growth, industry, pollution, and neglect of the river. The Anacostia became a regional and national embarrassment — the nation’s capital’s “forgotten river.”
The forces of corporate greed, government inertia, rapacious real estate development, rampant industrial pollution, and a large population struggling with poverty and inequity all seemed to conspire to keep the watershed a dumping ground beyond redemption.
For example, in Kenilworth “Park,” building contractors illegally dumped 350,000 square feet of construction debris at the river’s edge. A whopping 20,000 tons of garbage (tires, plastic, household waste) and immense quantities of pollution from gas stations, housing developments, and local industries wash into the watershed every year from multiple tributaries.
Perhaps most daunting is the systemic, region-wide problem associated with ancient and decrepit storm water and sewage systems, built in the 1890s and barely upgraded since. These nearly broken “systems” create a virtual sewage and trash dump into the watershed every time the area receives a heavy rain.
In 1989, a small group of concerned citizens initiated the Anacostia Watershed Society and adopted the slogan “START: Stop Trashing the Anacostia River Today.” The non-profit organization rallied around three goals: honor the heritage of the watershed and its communities, restore the river and its tributaries for human use and community health, and educate the public to take collective action.
Swimming the Anacostia?
An interview with AWS President Robert Boone
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AWS President Robert E. Boone (left) gives a framed picture to Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Each year, local elected officials discuss environmental issues at AWS’s Earth Day Rally celebrations. |
Recently, the Voice asked AWS President and Founder Robert Boone a few questions about what he sees as the critical challenges for AWS and its partners in reaching the next level and achieving lasting success for the watershed.
Who have been the most important advocates for AWS and the watershed in the last almost 20 years?
The Cafritz Foundation has been our longest and most loyal supporter. The Summit Fund has been our sustaining supporter over the years. We have had good support from the EPA and D.C. Department of Energy.
What are the most critical challenges to address to fully restore the Anacostia in the next ten years?
Citizen ownership of the public trust—our river and attendant public lands—and stormwater retention of volume and velocity from impervious cover are the greatest challenges due to the already built-up nature of our watershed.
How can local governments and citizens in Takoma Park and Silver Spring most effectively contribute to the cause?
Join and participate in local actions with the Anacostia Watershed Society and Friends of Sligo Creek and Friends of Northwest Branch – like Earth Day, April 26. Also, advocate with elected officials to stop the Intercounty Connector. Believe it or not, there is a burgeoning opportunity to stop the creeping ICC beast in the Montgomery and Maryland legislature. They need to hear from you!
What is a realistic vision within the next 10 to 20 years for Sligo Creek and the Anacostia River? Can we swim in it after a hard rain?
I would predict the possibility of swimming at the Bladensburg Waterfront Park within the next 5 to 8 years — if we can control the stormwater runoff. |
In ARS’s early years, the core staff was led by founder and president Robert Boone, who combined fire-in-the-belly passion with policy acumen and effective advocacy. In the early 1990s, Boone and his colleagues began an aggressive campaign that employed the rough-and-tumble tactics of lawsuits and hard-hitting public awareness campaigns. Their goal was to bring attention to the corporate practices and local government failures that made the river a relative failure in a region associated with good governance.
Within a few years, as the society grew in terms of its staff, budget, and community support, it adopted a broader strategy to combine advocacy and bridge-building with watershed constituents. It built alliances with local, county, and national government agencies; business and private sector interests; and a broad coalition of community organizations that all had a connection to the watershed.
My personal interest in the health of the Anacostia stems from growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, which has been named both “the best location in the nation” and “the mistake on the lake.” Living there in the 1950s and 1960s, I remember well when the main river, the Cuyahoga, actually caught on fire — more than once. I worked for six months at a steel mill along the banks downtown in “the flats” and made sure that I never came close to falling in that toxic river.
Since then, I have learned that commitment can overcome the most seemingly insurmountable challenges. The Cuyahoga and Lake Erie have been cleaned up significantly, thanks to political will combined with citizen concern and action.
Takoma and Silver Spring’s local watershed community organization, Friends of Sligo Creek, has demonstrated a model of tributary and microcosm activism and verifiable success with the Anacostia and our communities. Other similar tributary groups are doing the same. AWS can not do it alone, but working together, we can do what might have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago.
In the last few years, the Anacostia Watershed Society’s accomplishments have been nothing short of remarkable. Here are a few of its successes — for which which Boone and team give due credit to other participating organizations and the watershed’s citizens’ activists.
• Through crucial citizen advocacy and monitoring, the DC Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) has been able to reduce combined sewer overflow in the Anacostia by an impressive 40 percent.
• Recently, AWS has led community support efforts to ensure that the Prince George’s County government installed trash traps to “totally capture” all trash in several key locations before it enters the river. These traps can be replicated throughout the watershed;
• AWS provides education, training, and inspiration to thousands of local school children.
• With a crew of more than 2000 volunteers, AWS removed 50 tons of trash from 30 sites on the river on Earth Day 2007.
For more information on the Anacostia Watershed Society, call 301-699-6204 or visit www.anacostiaws.org.
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