When DCist saw this photo of a kid wading in the Anacostia River during an Earth Day clean-up in 2001, we were concerned. The Anacostia is dirty and who knows what kinds of skin ailments or worse that can develop when you have direct contact with the water. There is no doubt that the river is one of the nation’s dirtiest and most neglected.

The AP, via the W.Times, reports that could change, as ground has been broken on a new pumping station that is supposed to stop sewer overflows. Critics, including Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) say this should have happened 30 years ago when authorities began cleaning up the Potomac.