A deep dive ahead to get trash and abandoned boats out of the Anacostia River
The Anacostia River has been the focus of lots of cleanup efforts over the years, but the latest one tackles much more than bottles, cans and plastic bags.
Caitlin Bolton, environmental planner for the Anacostia Restoration Program by the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments, said a grant will help efforts to tackle abandoned boats and the retrieval of large, bulky items from the Anacostia.
The issue of “derelict vessels” is related to about 33 neglected or abandoned boats that are at or near a number of marinas on a stretch of the Anacostia known as “Boathouse Row.”
“Some of them have sunk and are resting on the river bottom,” Bolton told WTOP. “Nobody is claiming ownership to these boats anymore.”
Bolton said the boats pose a number of problems.
“These boats could leak different hazards, they’re blocking spaces that other boats could be using, and they could be potentially damaging habitats,” she said.
But should marinas be responsible for the boats kept at their facilities?
“A lot of these marinas, they’re volunteer-run organizations and they don’t have the extra means to take care of these boats once they have been abandoned,” Bolton said. “The marina owners have all been really receptive to our project and our plans for this.”
Along with removing the abandoned vessels, the grant money will fund barge cleanups in the Lower Beaverdam Creek area — a stretch between Cheverly in Maryland and the Kenilworth area of D.C. That cleanup is designed to get a number of large, bulky items out of the waterway.
Among the items left in the river are “electric scooters, bikes or picnic tables, items of trash that are a little bit harder for volunteer cleanups to reach,” according to Bolton.
She said some of the large items found in the river aren’t the result of dumping, but due to the “flashy” nature of the Anacostia River — meaning the river is prone to flash flooding.
Nearly $1 million in grant money from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is being combined with $90,000 in matching funds from regional environmental agencies to cover the cost of the four-yearlong project.
The Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership and the Anacostia Riverkeeper are part of the effort. The matching funds come from contributions made by the Maryland Department of the Environment, the D.C. Department of Energy and the Environment, and the Prince George’s County Department of the Environment.
WMCOG is also working with the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, WSSC Water, the National Park Service and community organizations on the restoration effort.