Anacostia
Putting the ‘Action’ in Chesapeake Bay ‘Action’ Plan
Here is some coverage from our June 30, 2011, action in the Anacostia River protesting the 28th year of not meeting the Clean Water Act deadline. We got some terrific media coverage. Thanks to all who came out! Here’s hoping that we won’t see a 29th year.
(Courtesy Lauren Gentile):
July 1, 1983
(Posted by Jeanne McCann.)
That’s the date by which the Clean Water Act promised that America’s waterways would be fishable and swimmable.
It’s 28 years since that deadline came and went. To bring attention to this anniverary, a group of hardy souls plunged into the murky waters of the Anacostia River to protest the continued failure to make good on that promise.
Read MoreScientists, Lawmakers To Take the Plunge for Clean Water
(Posted by Jeanne McCann.)
A small group of the scientists, lawmakers, and other concerned citizens behind this blog are planning to jump into the Anacostia River this coming Thursday, June 30, 10 a.m., to mark the passing of yet another year that we as a nation have failed to meet the deadline set by the Clean Water Act to have all rivers fishable and swimmable by July 1, 1983.
The Anacostia River Plunge
(Posted by Howard Ernst.)
For the last decade I have written, talked, and sometimes even done things to promote clean water in the Chesapeake Bay region and beyond. But one thing I have always refused to do was to participate in that unique Chesapeake Bay tradition known as “the wade-in.”
The practice was made popular by my good friend and trusted ally, former Maryland State Sen. Bernie Fowler, who has conducted his wade-in for more than two decades. As regular as the fish that return to the Bay each spring, on the second Sunday in June, Sen. Fowler and his followers return to the banks of the Patuxent to see how far they can walk in the water before their shoes become obscured by the thick flow of agricultural pollution, mud, and sewage that plague that troubled river. Politicians make speeches, friends are acknowledged for their hard work, and Bernie loses sight of his feet at about 30 inches (never much different than the year before).
Read MoreA New Day for the Anacostia River
(Posted by Brooke DeRenzis and Walter Smith.)
The Anacostia watershed is one of the most densely populated watersheds of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin. Like many urban watersheds, it is severely polluted by stormwater which runs off of roofs, roads, driveways and parking lots—picking up trash, oil, and bacteria along the way—and into the river and its streams. Although urban and suburban development accounts for only 9 percent of the Chesapeake Bay watershed’s land use, the Bay watershed is becoming more developed. In fact, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program, stormwater runoff is the Bay’s only major source of pollution that is increasing.