Marshland could see long-awaited restoration under water-projects bill

A long-awaited plan to reverse decades of environmental damage to one of the region’s largest marshes lying south of Alexandria could move forward under a $20 billion water-projects bill now before Congress.

National Park Service officials and local activists say they hope the project will undo the devastation to Dyke Marsh that began almost 70 years ago, when a company destroyed half of the wetlands by dredging the water for sand and gravel.