Anacostia River Receives First Passing Grade

Mom, a D- is passing, right? Anacostia River gets its first passing grade

Decades of work to improve the health of the Anacostia River are beginning to pay off, according to a report released Wednesday by the Anacostia Watershed Society.

The river earned a “D-minus” on its annual report card, its first passing grade in the decade since the nonprofit began issuing report cards for the waterway that runs through Maryland and the District of Columbia into the Potomac River. A significant uptick in underwater grasses — from zero acres a few years ago to nearly 25 acres in 2017—pushed it over the threshold from “F” to “D-minus.”

Advocates say the Anacostia’s water quality is likely even better than indicated by the report card, which was compiled mostly with the latest data from 2016. Since then, in March of this year, the first of DC Water’s underground tunnels came online to capture 80 percent of the sewage overflows and polluted stormwater runoff in the Anacostia watershed. Instead of entering the river, the flow is now diverted to the District’s wastewater treatment plant.

I covered the opening of the tunnel in a previous post. I'm glad to see it's starting to have some good effect. A D- is not a good grade, but it's a start.