The Potomac Basin Reporter

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Community Partners Raise Anacostia Issues, Awareness

More than 150 citizens and government officials gathered at the Washington Navy Yard on December 3rd for a citizen-inspired Anacostia Community Summit.

Sponsored by the Anacostia Community Partnership, comprised of environmental and civic organizations along the tidal Anacostia, the summit was an attempt to rally citizens, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies with interests or responsibilities along the tidal Anacostia to a greater understanding of some of the issues involved in preserving and improving the beleaguered river. The summit's sponsors also hope that the meeting is a first step in bringing greater public interest and input into future planning for the river's shoreline. The partnership's vision plan calls for hiring a professional planner to develop a community consensus plan that can be incorporated into federal and city watershed planning.

The meeting represented another step in an already long effort to mitigate centuries of abuse that have made the Anacostia one of the most troubled watersheds in not only the Potomac basin, but in the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed. The ICPRB continuing work in restoring the watershed involves a range of cooperative work, including cooperative work with the District of Columbia in writing Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) documents to guide future pollution control activities; support for the nonprofit Anacostia River Business Coalition, which encourages private sector efforts toward restoration; and general public outreach and information transfer.

The summit came after District of Columbia, Maryland, federal and local government officials agreed last May to strengthen the regional governmental commitment to Anacostia restoration. The summit served as a complementary citizen-oriented platform to provide input to government efforts.

The summit consisted of an introductory presentation about the tidal Anacostia, a review of actual and potential plans for the area by the National Capital Planning Commission, and a presentation on environmental justice issues in the watershed. The presentations were followed by panels that addressed several topics.

The Kingman and Heritage islands, located adjacent to RFK Stadium have been an ongoing concern for decades, and panelists presented information on the history of the islands, their legal status, and construction of wetlands in the area by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Formerly known as Children's Island, Heritage Island has been slated for development as a children's park and a commercial theme park. Environmental groups and some local residents have pushed strongly to use the island as a public park and environmental education facility. In the meantime, wetland construction in Kingman Lake has begun, using upstream dredge spoil to create areas where some 700,000 aquatic plants will be placed. The project is using the successes experienced at the Kenilworth Marsh restoration to increase wetland acreage in the District of Columbia.

Another panel discussed the use of Kenilworth Park on the eastern side of the tidal Anacostia, its history, and how it might be improved for greater use in the future. Community members and National Park Service staff formed a panel that discussed future land development at Poplar Point and Oxon Cove. A final panel comprised of District of Columbia employees discussed the resources available to Washington, D.C. planners and how the city government viewed the future of the Anacostia watershed.
Meeting attendees were addressed by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who discussed her work in making Congress more responsive to the needs of the District and in particular, the Anacostia.

Norton noted that much of the responsibility for the river's status was the federal government's, and that she was working to "see that they make it right." Norton is working on an urban watershed bill in Congress, using the Anacostia as a pilot. After praising the efforts currently underway as well as those performed in the past, Norton noted that the public needs a way to become more meaningfully involved. While the public has responded to the river's plight by organizing events such as river cleanups, "We need an urban watershed restoration strategy, not a cleanup-we already know about cleanups," she said. Norton implored citizens to help her to devise a "systematic approach to urban rivers."

The community was assisted in holding the summit by the Wilderness Society, the Friends of the Potomac, the steering group for the Potomac American Heritage River Initiative, and the Anacostia Watershed Society. The organizers were pleased with the outcome of the meeting, which helped provide a forum for local concerns with the Anacostia. "We were very happy to help sponsor the summit," noted Karen Zachary of the Friends of the Potomac. "Meetings like this can fulfill a need not only in the Anacostia, but throughout the entire basin. I would be happy to see more of these meetings, where communities can participate in the planning process that helps determine what those areas will be like in the future."

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From the Desk of the Executive Director

The Commission has had educational and environmental exchanges with a number of entities from outside of the United States over the years. In this edition of the Potomac Basin Reporter, you can read about a visit made to our sister river, the Arakawa in Japan. The Commission at its December meeting adopted a new ICPRB strategic plan including one goal of continuing national and international roles as a partner and facilitator of cooperation with other regional basin groups.

The City of Taipei, Taiwan was my first out-of-country experience as executive director as a participant in a water resources management forum hosted by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency in early December 1999. The forum, which featured presentations by water resources managers from both the U. S. and Taiwan Environmental Protection Agencies and other participants, was developed to address key water issues on the island of Taiwan.

The U. S. EPA, Office of International Activities invited me to present a talk on Watershed and Reservoir Protection. I used slides from areas in the basin to show some of the problems and solutions in the Potomac's watersheds that protect the water which is so vital to the basin. I attempted to address point and non-point sources of pollution and describe ways in which a variety of actions are taken to improve the region's water quality. Assistant Secretary Robert Hoyt of Maryland's Department of the Environment also was an active forum participant describing some of the successes of the Chesapeake Bay Program in restoring a major water body.

Taiwan's environmental programs are only about 10 years old. The island, which is about the same size as the Potomac River Basin, has some 22 million residents (more than 4 times the number in the basin). The Taiwanese are trying to address many environmental problems similar to those in our basin, but are faced with having to develop infrastructure for drinking water supply and sewage collection systems at the same time as they try to control non-point pollution sources. Significant non-point problems are from tea production on hillsides of narrow mountain valleys and pig-farming operations.

The U. S. EPA invited state and federal forum participants to share their experience with the some 50 staff members of the Taiwan EPA, through a program sponsored by the American Institute in Taiwan. After the formal presentations, the U. S. representatives met with a smaller group from Taiwan in a roundtable format that developed a series of recommendations for implementation to better manage the waters of Taiwan. The program is part of an ongoing technical exchange by the U. S. EPA. The water resources management forum was followed by a session on waste management, another significant environmental issue on the island.

The regional, cooperative nature of the commission's work is based on the realization that the many watersheds of the Potomac basin are closely linked, and must be dealt with as a whole. On a larger scale, the basin's waters are shared, through natural processes and connections, with adjacent basins. We share the water cycle with watersheds around the world. We need to manage the water quality and quantity as a single resource. For these reasons, it is important that we export our successes to other basins, and to seek answers to our problems in other regions from those who have developed technically acceptable solutions.

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Pennsylvania Program Provides Environmental Investment

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge signed into law a piece of far-reaching legislation in December that will route hundreds of millions of dollars into environmental restoration programs during the next five years.

The "Growing Greener" legislation, earlier passed overwhelmingly by the state legislature and described by Ridge as his top legislative priority, will use nearly $650 million to slash the backlog of farmland preservation projects in the state, protect open space, eliminate the maintenance backlog in state parks, clean up abandoned mines, restore watersheds, build recreational trails and local parks, help communities address land-use issues, and provide new and upgraded water and sewer systems. The money will be held in the new Watershed Protection and Environmental Stewardship Fund.

The five-year plan will use more than $473 million in general funds, as well as about $172 million redirected from the Recycling and Hazardous Sites Cleanup funds and Landfill Closure Accounts.

"Growing Greener is about preserving open space-protecting our lands and waters for fishing, hiking, and farming. For all of us and our children," said Ridge at the signing. "Our constitution gives Pennsylvanians the right to clean air, to pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment. We have a constitutional obligation to leave ‘Penn's Woods' better than we found them-and today we act decisively to fulfill it."

Money from the fund will be available as grants for restoration and education activities. Eligible applicants include counties and other municipalities; county conservation districts; watershed organizations; and nonprofit organizations involved in research, restoration, rehabilitation, planning, acquisition, development, education, or other activities furthering the protection, enhancement, and conservation of the state's environmental resources. "This new direction for the state will help many groups involved in river restoration to propose and fund projects that can have a strong impact on the state's river basins," noted Irene Brooks, executive director of the Department of Environmental Protection's Office for River Basin Cooperation and ICPRB Pennsylvania commissioner. "Pennsylvanians have always had many good ideas about preserving and protecting the state's water resources. This program will greatly increase the number of good ideas that turn into realities."

For more information on the Growing Greener grants and to obtain an application, use the following contacts:

Internet: www.dep.state.pa.us/growgreen/
Telephone:(717) 705-5400 or 1-877-PAGREEN
Mail: DEP Growing Greener Grants Center
9th Floor, Rachel Carson State Office Building
400 Market St.
P.O. Box 8776
Harrisburg, PA 17105-8776

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Annual Potomac Cleanup Announced-Volunteers Needed

Residents of the Potomac Watershed are encouraged to mark Saturday, April 1, 2000 on their calendars as a date that we can all contribute to the health of the Potomac. Led by the Alice Ferguson Foundation, operators of the Hard Bargain Farm environmental education center, the Year 2000 Potomac Watershed Cleanup will mark the effort's twelfth year, which has spread to every state of the watershed and to the shores of the Potomac's Japanese sister river, the Arakawa.

Last spring, the cleanup attracted nearly 3,000 volunteers to 106 sites along streams throughout the watershed. At one site in Virginia, more than 200 volunteers collected more than 16 tons of trash. "As a supporter of the project, the commission urges everyone to donate half of a Saturday to make the coming cleanup the most successful ever," said ICPRB Executive Director Joseph Hoffman. Volunteers can lend a hand at an existing site, or establish a new site in need of cleaning in their neighborhood. To help with an existing site, create a new one, or assist in the cleanup in other ways, contact Hard Bargain Farm at (301) 292-5665, or email to SilHBF@aol.com.

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Funds Provided for Potomac American Heritage River Project

The Friends of the Potomac, the steering group for the Potomac basin portion of the federal American Heritage Rivers Program, will receive $300,000 to forward restoration goals for the watershed. Federal legislation passed in October will provide the funds. The Potomac watershed is one of 14 waterways designated by the program.

The Friends of the Potomac was established to steer efforts after a diverse coalition of groups, including the ICPRB, drafted a successful proposal for designation of the watershed under President Clinton's American Heritage Rivers program.
U.S. Rep. Connie Morella (D-Md.) strongly supported the bill. "The Potomac is a shining example of our nation's rich diversity of natural, cultural and historic resources," Morella said. "This critical federal funding will provide essential assistance for locally led environmental protection, economic development, and cultural restoration efforts within the Potomac watershed."

The funding, for which the Friends of the Potomac is seeking required non-federal matches, will go toward implementing initiatives noted in the group's successful application for Heritage River status. Much of the plan was derived from the Potomac Visions Report, a 1994 cooperative study of the Potomac's restoration needs led by ICPRB. The report, which highlighted some of the watershed's most-pressing needs, including mitigation of acid mine drainage in the Potomac's North Branch basin, agricultural, and urban pollution problems, and the need for better access and cultural resources provides a good framework for restoration.

"The ICPRB is very excited about this support for the Potomac basin," ICPRB Executive Director Joseph Hoffman said. "We look forward to helping implement these projects that a coalition including the commission and many other groups, has deemed important to the future health of the watershed."

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Watching the River Flow

Flow of the Potomac River measured near Washington, D.C., was near normal during November and December, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

In November, river flow averaged about 2.6 billion gallons per day (bgd), or about 79 percent of normal flow for the month. Daily extremes ranged from a low of about 1.8 bgd on November 25 to a high of about 4.2 bgd on November 30.
Municipal diversions for drinking water averaged about 360 million gallons per day (mgd) during the month, seven percent less than November 1998. November total freshwater inflow to the Chesapeake Bay averaged about 21.4 bgd, only 56 percent of the norm. The Potomac, the bay's second-largest tributary, contributed a near-normal 17 percent of the total.

December river flow averaged about 5.9 bgd or about 95 percent of normal flow for this time of year. Daily extremes ranged from a low of about 2.9 bgd on December 10 to a high of 14.9 bgd on December 17.

Municipal diversions averaged about 356 million gallons per day (mgd), or about nine percent less than December 1998. Freshwater inflow to the bay averaged about 42.9 bgd, rising to 81 percent of the long-term December average. The Potomac contributed about 18 percent.

Groundwater levels throughout the basin generally are in the normal range, with the western portion of the basin registering lower levels than the metropolitan and tidewater areas.

During 1999, the annual flow of the Potomac averaged about 4.5 bgd, only 62 percent of the long-term average of 7.2 bgd. Daily extremes for the year ranged from a low of about 632 mgd on August 13 to a high of about 29.2 bgd on March 20. Diversions for drinking water ranged from 620 mgd on June 8 to 306 mgd on September 11.

Last year also was one of low river inflow to the Chesapeake Bay. The 1999 average inflow was about 34.6 bgd, or about 69 percent of the long-term average of about 50.2 bgd. The Potomac contributed a near-average 17 percent of the total.

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Potomac Educator Teaches in Japan

As a part of the ongoing Arakawa-Potomac Sister River Agreement between the U.S. and Japanese river basins, Hard Bargain Farm Education Director Sil Pembleton accepted an invitation to teach environmental education courses to students and teachers in the Ara watershed last fall.

The Arakawa ("kawa" is Japanese for "river") Sakura ("cherry blossom") Club and the ICPRB joined in 1996 to promote greater understanding and a sharing of environmental concerns and information between the two river basins. The Alice Ferguson Foundation's Hard Bargain Farm, a working farm that teaches environmental education to thousands of students and adults each year, has been a strong partner in the exchange.

This fall, on her second trip hosted by the Arakawa Sakura Club, Pembleton spent 10 days conducting environmental education workshops, including an Arakawa version of the "Who Polluted the Potomac?" lesson, and other watershed education activities for students and adults. In addition to school settings, workshops also were conducted at two river-related museums in Saitama prefecture, through which the Ara flows before draining one of the most-populated parts of Tokyo and finally emptying into Tokyo Bay. Pembleton noted that a Maryland Wye Oak tree, donated by the state under the Sister River Agreement, graces the lawn at the Saitama River Museum.

Pembleton also spent a little time learning about some Japanese attitudes and efforts amidst a packed workshop schedule. On a hike with a nonprofit nature study group, the Eco-Police, she saw some familiar plants, and learned that the trees known in the U.S. as tulip poplars also live in Japan, where they are called the "kimono leaf." Observations such as that are at the center of the whole exchange program-different cultures have different names and ways of looking at similar things, and through those differences come new insights into dealing with common problems, such as the state of the waters that we all ultimately share. "Regardless of the names of the rivers, lakes and oceans, there exists a universal cycle of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation," Pembleton said. "The water is recycled again and again. And because all must share this water resource, we must work together for its protection."

Pembleton also visited an unusual facility dedicated to restoring one aspect of the environment being lost to increasing urbanization-fireflies. Researchers at the "Firefly Village" in Itabashi City are propagating two endangered species of fireflies. Firefly populations have dwindled, particularly in urban areas. In addition to trying to restore the firefly population, the group is seeking to establish a green urban waterfront in the city to help restore habitat. Pembleton related that one of these endangered species has a lesson to be learned from its unusual aquatic life stage. The aquatic larva feed on a species of snail that lives only in clean water. Populations of the snails and fireflies decreased along with water quality. The Firefly Village now donates fireflies for release to officials and areas that are working to improve the environment. One researcher travels the country as the "Firefly Man," spreading the message to students. "Firefly Man shares our environmental education philosphy," Pembleton noted.

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ICPRB Update

Basin Water Demand Forecast Proceeds
Progress is continuing in a study to help determine future water demands for the Potomac basin and how those demands can best be met (see July/August 1999 Reporter). The ICPRB is conducting the study for the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).
The area's growing water use and future needs have raised concerns about the resource that were heightened by last summer's use of stored water to bolster low Potomac flows during the drought. This ongoing study will examine the region's current water supply assets and their adequacy in meeting future needs based on growth projections and the types of water uses, both consumptive and nonconsumptive, that are likely to occur during the next 30 years.

To date, ICPRB has begun identifying and collecting baseline water demand data from a wide range of sources for integration into the study. A citizens advisory group has been formed by MDE to bring public input to the process. Local governments are being contacted throughout the basin to develop water supplier information, including large self-supplied water users and other commercial, industrial and agricultural users.

As the study progresses, quarterly meetings with the advisory group will be held while information is collected and refined. A final report will be prepared at the study's end in the fall of 2000.

Corps of Engineers' Construction will Prepare for a Fishy Spring
A major milestone in the efforts of ICPRB and others to restore shad to the Potomac should occur in February, weather permitting, with the completion of a fish passage at the Little Falls Dam north of Washington, D.C. Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will remove a coffer dam near the Virginia shoreline used to allow the construction of the concrete structure. Modification of the dam will allow shad and other fish to travel upstream, opening about 10 miles of prime spawning and nursery habitat that has been closed to the species for decades (see September/October 1999 Reporter).

The approximately $1.9-million project will allow the return of millions of shad fry that have been stocked in the upstream area since 1995 by ICPRB with help from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, school groups, and individuals. It is hoped that the fish will find the new structure to their liking and use it to return to the area where they were released.

The push to replace the existing, non-functioning, fish passage on Snake Island in the middle of the dam has been a lengthy one that has stalled several times over the last decade but has finally come to pass through the diligence of many individuals and organizations including ICPRB, as well as the availability of funding.

Hotline for Reporting Pollution: 1-800-377-5879
A coalition of federal and state agencies has made it easier for citizens to report suspected violations of environmental laws using a toll-free telephone number.

The Chesapeake Bay Environmental Enforcement Coalition Environmental Hotline will accept calls at any time at 1-800-377-5879. Emergency calls will be automatically forwarded to a 24-hour manned operations center.

The Chesapeake Bay Enforcement Coalition is a partnership of environmental and law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, working with concerned citizens and private groups to improve conservation and environmental compliance in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay area. Although the service focuses primarily on Maryland, the office will try to help with reports received from throughout the bay watershed.

Public Comment on Bay Agreement Welcomed
Goals for the future health of the Chesapeake Bay will be adopted by the bay states and the federal government later this year. The goals set forth in the recently released draft plan include specific commitments for aquatic vegetation acreage, harvest targets for crabs and oysters, and sediment reduction load targets. The plan also begins to address the effects of urban/suburban sprawl and and the loss of forests and farmlands.

The document is expected to guide restoration activity for the bay through the next decade and beyond. As the second largest bay tributary, the resources of Potomac basin also will be affected by the plan.

The public has an opportunity to comment on the draft agreement until March 31. "Chesapeake 2000" is available online at www.chesapeakebay.net or can be faxed by calling the Chesapeake Bay Program Office at 1-800-YOUR-BAY. Comments can be emailed to the web site, or mailed back.

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