Photo by mosley.brian.The Anacostia River is dirty. We all kind of knew that already, but that assessment has officially been confirmed by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. In addition to said confirmation, Lamberth has ruled in a 67-page opinion that the Environmental Protection Agency needs to create new standards for the river, since the last round was “arbitrarily” produced.
Billions of gallons of stormwater and sewage are dumped into the river every year, and the EPA’s got a year to come up with a new plan. At least they appear to have an eager local partner in the District’s water authority.
“Our agency is already in the midst of spending more than a billion dollars to nearly eliminate overflows into the Anacostia during heavy rains,” said General Manager George S. Hawkins after the ruling was made. “We also spend half a million dollars annually skimming trash from the Districts waterways. No single institution will ever do more for the quality of water in the Anacostia.”
Part of that billion dollar expense: a massive underground tunnel which is expected to cut the amount of sewage which flowing into the Anacostia during inclement weather by 98 percent. Now all we need to do is make sure companies don’t dump petroleum into the water and we’ll be almost there.
A full copy of Lamberth’s ruling in the lawsuit can be read below.
