The Polluted Potomac

By Broadside Staff Writer Sonya Hudson

The Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering lecture series is offered each semester to educate interested people on the current research projects and developments in this field. The lecture, presented by the director of Environmental Programs Stuart Freudberg, and the Water Resources Technical manager Steve Bieber of the Metropolitan Council of Governments, focused on the improvement of the water quality of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay.

The lecture, entitled “Historical Perspective on Water Quality and Waste Management in the Potomac River,” focused on the history of pollution in the river and the progress made in the past century, especially in the last 40 years.

The Potomac River, located right by the nation’s capital, is the focus of many research projects of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Council of Governments is an association of 21 local governments in the D.C. area. The COG is in the process of improving the water quality of many rivers in the area, including the Potomac.

The Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay have had many famous visitors. In 1608, Captain John Smith supposedly visited the Chesapeake Bay and declared it was the best resource for a variety of fish. Almost two centuries later, in 1790, Vice Pres. John Adams swam in the Potomac.

This once invigorating river that served as a place of leisure, later turned into a sewage-infiltrated river. In 1860, Lincoln was forced to vacate the White House due to the intoxicating odor of the Potomac, caused by the sewage.

The Potomac was not a source of public water supply until 1863, but it wasn’t until 1920 that D.C. officials agreed that the sewage should be treated before being discharged into the river.

Over time, legislation has been passed to clean up the Potomac and Chesapeake. Congress enacted the first Federal Water Pollution Control Act in 1948, but it wasn’t until 1969 that water quality standards were actually enforced. In 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency was created, which served to protect the environment.

In 1971, almost 200 years after Adams swam in the Potomac, the D.C. health department banned swimming in the river. Six years later, in 1977, the Clean Water Act passed, which established laws to clean-up and protect waters, such as the Potomac River, from pollution caused by industries and individuals.

Pollution of the Potomac is not a new problem, but one with a lot of history. It took a couple of centuries for Congress to start addressing and acting on the problem.

There are about 5 million people who live in the area regulated by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, which serves about 25 percent of the people who live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and about 80 percent of the people who live in the Potomac watershed.

Because of the rapid growth in population in the region of the nation’s capital, the Potomac has had increased pollution including bacterial contamination, low dissolved oxygen and algal bloom.

The introduction of advanced wastewater treatment plants has reduced all of these problems and improved the water quality of the Potomac. These improvements were also a result of the reduction of the levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in the Potomac.

Freudberg and Bieber went in-depth in their lecture on the different levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and how that has affected the water quality of the Potomac. Basically, the levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in the river have decreased due to the improved wastewater treatments. This has improved the water quality of the Potomac dramatically.

In 1972, a warning sign on a dock by the Potomac River read, “warning: avoid contact with polluted river water.”

Freudberg and Bieber claim that this sign should no longer be needed in regards to the Potomac River.