DC sues federal government over pollution in Anacostia River

The District of Columbia on Friday filed a lawsuit against the federal government over pollution in the Anacostia River, arguing it has inflicted “catastrophic harm” on the mostly poor and minority communities living along the urban waterway.

The lawsuit argues that federal government, which owns and controls the riverbed, has since the 1800s dumped toxic waste, heavy metals and chemicals including carcinogenic PCBs in the river and refused to clean it up. The 9-mile (14-kilometer) river flows through Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland. For decades, it was treated as a municipal dumping ground for industrial waste, storm sewers and trash. That contamination largely affected communities of color.

The lawsuit alleges that PCBs from the Washington Navy Yard were dumped in the river along with hazardous chemicals from the Kenilworth Landfill and chemical waste from federal printing facilities. It also blamed the federal government for poorly managing the District of Columbia's sewer system, which led to the dumping of raw sewage and toxic waste into the river.

That pollution has led to swimming bans and warnings about fishing along the river, the lawsuit alleges, calling the federal government its biggest polluter.

“It has systematically contaminated the River through the indiscriminate dumping and release of hazardous substances and through destructive dredge and fill operations,” the lawsuit says.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said pollutants in the river don't break down and cause long-lasting harm to the environment, aquatic wildlife, and human health, including cancer, neurological and developmental disorders and birth defects.

The District of Columbia is demanding that the federal government pay for the river's cleanup.

The lawsuit comes as the District of Columbia has made progress in cleaning up the river and returning to a time where residents fished and boated and wildlife including bald eagles, osprey, cranes, kingfishers and eel thrived there.

A $3.29 billion sewer upgrade, including a series of tunnels drilled under the city to capture storm and sewage water, has reduced overflows into the river by 91%, according to DC Water, the city’s water utility. The final section of the Anacostia Tunnel System went online in 2023, and the overall system is expected to reduce overflows by 98%.

Pepco, the city’s utility, also reached an agreement with the District of Columbia to pay more than $57 million for discharging hazardous chemicals from their power plants into soil, groundwater and storm sewers for decades that polluted the Anacostia and other areas. The settlement was believed to be the largest in the utility’s history.

The payments will be used in part to clean up the river. Other measures the city government instituted like a fee on plastic bags since 2009 have also helped keep trash out, experts say.

Still, the Anacostia remains polluted. It received a failing grade for the third time in six years in 2023 from a nonprofit that grades the river’s health based on its fecal bacteria content and the state of its aquatic vegetation.

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