By 2025, we could fish and swim in the once notoriously-polluted Anacostia River

Hundreds of years ago, people could fish and swim in the Anacostia River without worry, but over time it became so polluted that the prospect of swimming or eating anything from it became absurd. The work of local governments and nonprofits, however, has catapulted this idea out from the absurd straight back into the realms of possibility.

By 2025, we could once again swim and eat fish from the Anacostia. The prospects look so great that Jim Foster, the president of the Anacostia Watershed Society, a local nonprofit whose mission is to protect and restore the river, says he can’t wait to get in: “I’m planning on going water-skiing in the river next year.”

While it’s likely that conditions in the river will improve to the point where swimming is possible, people’s perceptions may not change so quickly. “Will people want to swim in the river? Some people will say they will never swim in there,” Foster said.

Like waterways around the world, the Anacostia River is still polluted with microplastics and chemical contaminants. However, it has gone from consistently recieving an “F” on the Anacostia Watershed Society’s health exam to receiving a “D” grade in 2018. To understand how the river has managed to recover, Foster says, we must first understand how it deteriorated.

What polluted the Anacostia River?

According to Foster, the Anacostia River became seriously polluted during the Civil War. In the 1860s, “the Union Army brought about 50,000 troops and all their accoutrements… and they cut down all the trees [from the surrounding area] to build 67 forts to circle Washington,” he said.

At the time, Foster says all their waste went by “way of the river,” as did trash from munitions facilities, slaughterhouses, a steel mill, and other warehouses. Foster says that the river went into a state that he described with the phrase, “Oh. My. God.”

It wasn’t until after the Civil War that the District built a sewer system to control the spread of infectious diseases. According to DC Water, “before the end of the war, there were epidemics of smallpox, typhoid, and malaria which caused the deaths of thousands of people.”

Josh Burch, who works on stream stabilization projects for the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), said that as the District gradually became urbanized, the number of hard surfaces in the city, like surface parking lots, started to expand. This gave way to a new problem: stormwater runoff.

“Instead of [rain]water just hitting trees and agricultural areas, it started hitting those rooftops and impervious surfaces, channeling that water all into one area,” Burch said. This increased the amount of pollutants and sediment in the rainwater, which flows into local waterways and kills off aquatic vegetation. That, in turn, reduces sources of food and oxygen for fish.

The District has been working hard over the past several years to rehabilitate the wetlands surrounding the Anacostia, which serve as the river’s natural “kidneys.” Wetlands, Burch explained, are vital to the health of rivers because they help to filter the water that flows into them.

A major modern cause of pollution in the Anacostia is plastic, which is ubiquitous today and ends up in everything, including local waterways.

Local laws have improved water quality

It’s not just the restoration projects that have helped the Anacostia recuperate—various efforts from local governments in the region have also accelerated the river’s recovery. One such effort is the District’s “Anacostia River Clean Up and Protection Act,” which aimed to reduce the number of plastic bags that end up in the river, among other things.

The law tacked on a five-cent surcharge to consumer purchases of paper or plastic bags. The surcharge, according to a DOEE publication, has helped fund the installation of seven trash traps in the Anacostia which have, over the years, “removed more than 70,000 lbs of trash and debris.” The law has also helped fund stream restoration projects, over 3,000 tree plantings, and more than 2,300 rain barrels to capture stormwater.

In January 2016, DC’s ban on polystyrene (aka styrofoam) food containers and products went into effect. A similar styrofoam ban started in Prince George’s County that same year in July, helping to drastically reduce the amount of waste entering waterways and landfills.

Earlier this year, the District began enforcing its ban on the use of single-use plastic straws, requiring businesses to use either compostable or reusable straws instead. This month, Prince George’s passed similar legislation, joining the City of Takoma Park and Charles County as well.

Tiaa Rutherford, manager of Prince George’s litter reduction program, says the county is introducing new legislation in 2020 banning the use of plastic bags. According to Rutherford, Prince George’s County is the first jurisdiction in Maryland to have an in-stream litter trap, and by next year, plans to increase the number of traps from two to three.

Reduction of trash, however, is just one component in the strategy to restore the Anacostia. In recent years, the Clean Rivers Project, led by DC Water, worked to build underground tunnels to protect the river from sewage overflows.

According to Robbie O’Donnell, the watershed programs manager for Anacostia Riverkeeper, one third of DC’s sewage infrastructure is served by a combined sewer systems installed in the 19th century. During large rainstorms, waste from the city’s sewers used to outflow into the river.

As O’Donnell explained, “they [the District government] can’t completely overhaul all of DC’s [sewage] infrastructure without costing billions and billions and billions of dollars…so instead, they’re adding these large tunnels underneath the sewage system.”

The tunnels work to redirect sewage to the Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant, instead of allowing it to make its way into the river. According to the Anacostia Watershed Society, these tunnels captured about 90% of all the stormwater overflows into the river last year, which has reduced the level of bacteria present in the water. When complete, DC Water’s new tunnels should be able to capture 98% of overflow, according to O’Donnell.

The next battle: microplastics and hormone disrupters

During a recent interview, Lillian Power, an environmental protection specialist with DOEE, highlighted the importance of having conversations about ways individuals can help. Instead of having conversations centered around not littering, it’s more impactful to refrain from purchasing single-use plastic in the first place, and to do what you can to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

“Maybe don’t buy plastic water bottles and bring a reusable, right? Even if you’re putting away those disposable plastic bags in the right place, maybe you just don’t need to use them at all,” she said.

While her advice may sound like it isn’t anything new, it’s poignant considering the fact that according to a recent study, microplastics are found not only in waterways all over the region, but also in the soil and even in the air we breathe. Despite their small size, they are wreaking havoc on the environment. Even tiny animals like newborn fish mistake small bits of plastic for food. That plastic transports toxic chemicals, which can impact reproduction and feeding behavior in fish. These toxic effects are felt up the food chain.

Some of these chemicals, called hormone disrupters, are leading to new environmental phenomena, like intersex bass. According to Chesapeake Bay Program writer Catherine Krikstan, “Intersex conditions, the presence of both male and female characteristics in an animal that should exhibit the characteristics of just one sex in its lifetime, occur when chemicals like pesticides, pharmaceuticals or personal care products enter the water and disturb the hormonal systems of fish and other species.”

This chemical pollution comes from sewage overflows and herbicides and veterinary pharmaceuticals from farms. When the hormone disrupters end up in the water, they can throw off the functions that regulate fish hormones and reproductive systems. This is not only a problem for the Anacostia, but also for the Potomac and waterways around the world.

“We’re creating a whole new array of chemicals that are out there that aren’t getting treated,” Foster explained. Nonetheless, Foster is optimistic about the future of the Anacostia. He says while the river still faces big challenges, it has come a long way.

So will we really be able to swim in the Anacostia by 2025? Foster thinks so, but he may hold off on pulling his dinner from the river: “Swimming is almost a certainty by 2025, but fishing is still up in the air a little bit.”