Rare Chance To Swim In The Anacostia River Postponed Due To Pollution

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Parts of the Anacostia River are getting ever-so-close to the water quality standards needed to render it officially swimmable. But it’s not quite there yet.

It’s generally been illegal to swim in the Anacostia River for more than 50 years. But an event planned for July 8 would have made it legal — for one day — for more than a hundred people to jump into a stretch of the Anacostia River along Kingman Island. That spot is one of three that passed recreational water quality standards more than 90% of the time during weekly water quality monitoring in 2022.

So far this year, the site off Kingman Island was passing 83% of the time. The selected Saturday in July offered a good combination of high tide around noon, space on busy summer calendars and warm water.

“We didn’t want people to jump in and it be freezing cold,” said Anacostia Riverkeeper Trey Sherard, whose organization planned the event with the District of Columbia’s Department of Energy and Environment.

But then, on the afternoon of July 6 — despite clear forecasts — it rained.

The river’s drainage area got a quick dousing, with more than an inch of rain falling in a half-hour in one location. That was enough to cause the city’s old combined sewer system, which mixes raw sewage with stormwater, to overflow in two places into the Anacostia.

The water would no longer be safe for a swim. The “Splash” event, which had already garnered plenty of media attention, was quickly postponed.

A nearly $3 billion project to curtail overflows like these has been in the works for more than a decade and was, on July 8, just weeks away from preventing the kinds of overflows that washed out the swim event. DC Water’s Clean Rivers Project has been building 18 miles of massive underground tunnels to store polluted stormwater runoff until it can be treated, ending nearly all the overflows that have fouled the Anacostia for decades.

The first Anacostia tunnel came online in 2018, curbing overflows by 90% — and setting the stage for river advocates to begin dreaming about swimming. The utility plans to bring a second tunnel online in September that will reduce total overflows to the river by 98%.

Construction on the second tunnel, though, may have played a role in one of the overflows that stopped the July swim. One of the outfalls was disconnected from the existing tunnel the day of the unexpected rain as part of the work to bring the new tunnel online, DC Water spokeswoman Pamela Mooring said. But the same “very intense rain” caused another outfall to overflow at the same time, she said, which may have been enough to stop the swim on its own.

“The timing was unfortunate,” said Quinn Molner, director of operations for the Anacostia Riverkeeper, “but this Clean Rivers Project is going to undoubtedly do good things for water quality on the Anacostia.”

Because of the impending progress on the new tunnel, organizers of the one-time swim event decided to postpone it until September. Planners haven’t set the date yet, because they aim to hold the event after the project is complete.

Sherard said plans for a one-off swim event have been in the works for at least two years. In 2018, as water quality in both the Potomac and Anacostia rivers began to improve, the DOEE issued an amendment to its 1971 swimming ban that allowed for permitted swim events to take place in District waters.

Initially, the Anacostia Riverkeeper wanted to hold the event last fall, celebrating the river’s progress on the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.

“Ever since we started seeing decent water quality testing at these spots, it’s been on our radar,” Sherard said.

But plans for a 2022 event were foiled when the nonprofit found out the District’s Office of Risk Management required them to get an additional form of insurance to hold such an event on Kingman Island, which is owned by the District. That process took a year.

Molner said some people have struggled with the idea of dipping in the Anacostia after telling people for years to stay away. But those who have followed the river’s steady progress, particularly over the last decade, appeared to be ready. The Splash event saw 60 signups in the first hour after it was publicized. When the signup added 60 additional slots and then a few more, those were snatched up just as quickly.

Holding a one-day swim event, however, does not mean the river is open — or safe — for swimming. It will remain illegal to swim in District waters outside of permitted events like these, organizers were careful to point out. But the events could help get people ready for a day when that’s no longer the case, Molner said. 

“Obviously, the goal is an Anacostia that is fully swimmable,” she said. But “these safe swim spots allow us to wade into the idea.”