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Anacostia River Trash Reduction Plan


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The District of Columbia is a signatory to the Trash Free Potomac Watershed Treaty. The goal of the treaty is a trash free watershed by 2013. The Anacostia River, an urban tributary to the Potomac River, has a severe problem with excessive trash. This has resulted in both the District of Columbia and State of Maryland determining that pollution has impaired the quality of the river to the point that trash loads must be reduced. The two entities have agreed to use the Anacostia as a model of how to reduce trash in a river and move toward a trash free Potomac Watershed.

The District Department of the Environment (DDOE) decided to undertake a comprehensive assessment of trash in the Anacostia watershed. This assessment was needed to characterize the type and sources of trash to the river.  In 2008, DDOE funded the Anacostia Watershed Society to conduct the study and summarize their findings in a report.  The document developed, the Anacostia Watershed Trash Reduction Plan, is featured on this page.  Many of the findings in this report have helped to direct the District’s efforts at reducing trash to the Anacostia River.