NBC WASHINGTON: Caretakers of the Anacostia River have set a goal of ensuring the river is clean enough to swim and fish in by 2025. But, in their annual river report card, the Anacostia Watershed Society gave the river a failing grade.
Still, the river’s condition should be taken in context.
For thousands of years, the Nocochtank tribe relied on the Anacostia River for sustenance, harvesting fish from its runs and wild rice from the rifles.
When the English explorer John Smith sailed on those waters in the 1600s, he wrote of being able to see the river’s bottom. Later in colonial America, up until the 1830s, sea-going vessels could sail all the way to the busy port town of Bladensburg.
The tall ships have long since been replaced by smaller craft. The river bottom is now obscured by silt and runoff from deforestation and development, and the river rolls along.
But it hasn’t been the smoothest of sailing. The latest annual report from the Anacostia Watershed Society gives the river a score of 52%, a 3-point drop from last year’s score.
According to the organization, this is the third time in six years that the river receives a failing grade.
