The District of Columbia on Friday filed a lawsuit against the federal government over pollution of the Anacostia River, arguing it has caused “catastrophic harm” to the mostly poor and minority communities that live along the city’s waterways.
The lawsuit argues that the federal government, which owns and controls the riverbed, has dumped toxic waste, heavy metals and chemicals since the 1800s. Carcinogenic PCBs in the river and refused to wash. The 9-mile (14-kilometer) river flows through parts of Washington DC and Maryland. For decades, it was treated as a municipal landfill for industrial waste, storm sewers and garbage. This pollution affected communities of color to a great extent.
The lawsuit alleges that PCBs from the Washington Navy Yard were dumped into the river along with hazardous chemicals from the Kenilworth Landfill and chemical waste from federal printing facilities. He also accused the federal government of mismanaging the District of Columbia’s sewer system, which led to the discharge of raw sewage and toxic waste into the river.
That pollution has led to bans on fishing and swimming along the river, the lawsuit says, calling the federal government the biggest polluter.
“He has systematically polluted the river through indiscriminate discharges and releases of hazardous substances and through destructive dredging and filling operations,” the lawsuit states.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said pollutants in the river do not break down and cause lasting harm to the environment, aquatic wildlife and human health, including cancer, neurological and developmental disorders and birth defects.
The District of Columbia is asking the federal government to pay for the river cleanup.
The lawsuit comes as the District of Columbia is cleaning up the river and returning to a time when residents fished and boated, and animals including black eagles, ospreys, cranes, kingfishers and eels were raised.
The $3.29 billion sewer upgrade, which includes several tunnels dug under the city to capture storm and sewage, has reduced flooding to the river by 91 percent, according to city water utility DC Water. The last part of the Anacostia tunnel system opened in 2023, and the overall system is expected to reduce flooding by 98%.
Pepco, the city’s utility, also reached a settlement with the District of Columbia to pay more than $57 million for decades of leaking hazardous chemicals from the plants into soil, underground and storm sewers that polluted Anacostia and other areas. The settlement was believed to be the largest in the service’s history.
The payments will be used, in part, to clean the river. Other measures such as the city government’s plastic bag fee since 2009 have also helped keep litter out, experts say.
However, the Anacostia remains contaminated. In 2023 it received a failing grade for the third time in six years from a nonprofit that grades the health of the river based on its fecal bacteria content and the condition of its aquatic vegetation.
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