D.C.-area Anacostia Watershed to be cleared of trash with $1 million in federal money

The Anacostia Watershed will have about 60,000 pounds of trash and 33 abandoned or broken boats removed under a $1 million federal grant, regional officials said Monday.

The four-year project will be conducted by the nonprofit Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the Anacostia Riverkeeper. It will clean trash out of Lower Beaverdam Creek in Prince George’s County and remove the abandoned and derelict vessels from at least five marinas along the river, the nonprofit groups said in a joint news release.

In addition, barges will be deployed along an 8.5-mile stretch of the Anacostia River to help clean up larger debris, including “dockless bikes, electric scooters, and picnic tables.”

“Removing trash and debris, especially abandoned vessels, is crucial to reviving the health of our waterways and ensuring that our watershed residents have access to a clean and safe river,” Anacostia Riverkeeper President Suzy Kelly said in the news release.

Work along the creek and river is expected to start in 2025, MWCOG Project Manager Phong Trieu told Fox News affiliate WTTG-TV.

The Lower Beaverdam Creek, in particular, was an area of focus for MWCOG: It has one of the largest amounts of trash of the 43 sites surveyed along the watershed, including the highest concentrations of appliances, tires, car parts and metal scraps.

The pollutants harm fish, including American shad, hickory shad and striped bass, the groups said.

The money, appropriated via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is being awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program.

The federal funding, in turn, leverages matching funding of $90,000 from the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Prince George’s County Department of the Environment and the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, the two nonprofits said.

MWCOG consists of 24 local jurisdictions, including the District; the Maryland counties of Montgomery, Prince George’s, Charles and Frederick; the Virginia counties of Prince William, Arlington, Loudoun and Fairfax; five Virginia cities; and nine cities and one town in Maryland.