Salvaging the D.C. area’s “forgotten river” will require unprecedented multi-jurisdictional cooperation, decades of work, countless small but significant projects and billions of dollars, according to a recently released report on the restoration of the Anacostia.
The efforts start with a baby step. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a study last week detailing more than 100 projects that could be undertaken to rejuvenate Sligo Creek and its subwatershed — the 7,085-acre land area that drains rainwater, soils, trash and other pollution into the creek and, eventually, the Anacostia River.
The plan calls for green roofs, tree boxes, weekly street sweeping, parking lot stormwater treatment (called bioretention) and erosion controls throughout the 11.1-square-mile Sligo Creek subwatershed.
“Those projects are actually doable and probably sufficient to have a much bigger impact,” said Bruce Sidwell, president of Friends of Sligo Creek. “They’re on target for what’s needed.”
The corps, using Sligo as a template, will prepare similar restoration blueprints over the next year for the Anacostia’s 22 other tributaries and 13 subwatersheds. It’s a long, long-term process. Every candidate project, subject to funding availability, will require further study and prioritization.
The goals: Limit stormwater runoff, reduce the 20,000 tons of garbage and debris that flow into the river annually, increase the tree canopy, reopen stream channels for fish migration, and remediate numerous “toxic hot spots.”
“The only way to achieve a holistic plan for the entire basin is to take a piece of it and test the results,” D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, whose legislation sparked the Anacostia cleanup effort, said in a statement.
The Anacostia Restoration Plan will return “ecological integrity and function to the watershed,” the corps’ report states, but it will require several decades, $2 billion to $3 billion and a coordinated effort from all impacted jurisdictions. The corps, D.C., Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, the state of Maryland and the Environmental Protection Agency form the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership.
Sligo Creek flows mostly through Montgomery County. Its subwatershed, encompassing parts of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and D.C., is one of the Anacostia’s most urbanized and least protected.
The Sligo blueprint, with an estimated $45.2 million price tag, includes 82 stormwater-related projects, 13 stream restoration projects, 21 trash reduction projects, 12 wetland restoration projects and 23 projects to help fish move more freely through the creek.
Controlling stormwater runoff is crucial, as it is “the vehicle by which all of the pollution enters into the river,” said James Connolly, president of the Anacostia Watershed Society.
“If we can manage stormwater in this highly urbanized watershed, the river will clean itself,” Connolly said. “Nature is always seeking balance.”
