Anacostia River water quality improves, but it’s still not safe for swimming

A C- grade typically isn’t cause celebration. But for the Anacostia River, which has received failing marks for water quality for decades, the grade is a historic milestone.

The Anacostia Watershed Society’s annual State of the River Report Card, to be released Tuesday, awarded the Anacostia River a C-, marking the highest grade the waterway has ever received. The grade reflects nearly 40 years of restoration efforts to clean up what was once one of America’s most polluted rivers.

It has been illegal to swim in the Anacostia since the early 1970s, due in part to pollution from human waste.

“Thanks to the tireless efforts of local governments, non-profits, academic institutions, and a legion of volunteers from DC and Maryland, a thriving, fishable, swimmable Anacostia River is coming into view,” the watershed society’s CEO Chris Williams said in a statement.

The society’s grading system is based on eight categories, including water clarity, chlorophyll a (a measure of algae growth), submerged aquatic vegetation, stormwater runoff volume, dissolved oxygen, fecal bacteria, toxics remediation and trash reduction.

The river has shown steady, gradual improvements in most of the categories since the watershed society first released the report in 2014. But the average score for fecal bacteria declined this past year from 67% to 58%, earning the river an F in that category.

So what’s with all the poop?

Heavy rains have overwhelmed D.C.’s century-old combined sewer system, sending waste water into creeks and rivers, including the Anacostia.

Although the Anacostia River Tunnel System has helped cut sewage spills into the river, stormwater runoff carrying pollutants, including wildlife waste, remains an issue.

“One of the problems is that the natural environment is so changed along the river that wildlife is actually a significant source of fecal coliform and E. coli in the river,” Williams said. “When there was woods and wetlands and forests, wildlife would just do their thing, and it would decompose and disappear long before it ever got to the river. But now you have wildlife in such constricted habitat areas that a lot of their waste flows into the river and aggravates this problem.”

Addressing the issue will require robust stormwater management alongside strict control of human and pet waste, Williams said.

The watershed society’s report also noted that managing runoff will grow increasingly difficult as climate change brings more frequent and intense storms to the region. The report urges local jurisdictions across D.C., Montgomery County and Prince George’s County to restore wetlands, conserve forests and reconnect floodplains.

Is the river swimmable yet?

No, the river is not swimmable, and it’s still illegal to do so.

Williams emphasized that achieving a “swimmable” status will be incremental. Some stretches of the river may be safe on certain days while others remain too polluted.

The Anacostia Riverkeeper has tried for years to host swim events, where the ban is temporarily lifted for a day. But the event has been canceled for several years due to heavy rainfalls that send high levels of E. coli into the river.

What’s next?

To maintain positive momentum, Williams highlighted two critical efforts for improving the water quality.

The long-awaited Anacostia River Sediment Project aims to remove industrial pollutants embedded in the riverbed.

“It’s those chemicals and the fact that they get stirred up in the water column and get into the tissues of fish that makes the river not fishable,” Williams said. “We’ve been waiting for that thing to get started for many years.”

The project is scheduled to begin next year.

Second, Williams said that upcoming bottle bills that impose a small refundable fee on single-use beverage containers could cut the trash in the river by half or more. D.C. and Maryland are considering such measures.

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