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In 1896, Congress took action to clean up its local rivers. It approved legislation making it illegal to throw "dead fish...dead animals of any kind, condemned oysters in the shell, watermelons, cantaloupes, vegetables, fruits, shavings, hay, straw, ice snow, filth, or trash of any kind whatsoever" into the Potomac and its tributaries within the District of Columbia.
Today, the type of trash has changed, but the problem remains. Instead of watermelons and cantaloupes, volunteers who turned out April 18 to clean the Anacostia River in and around the District found car doors, orange highway barrels, shopping carts, bottles and cans-and plastic bags by the thousands.
"The watershed's really changed since 1896," said Steven Reynolds, outreach coordinator for the Anacostia Watershed Society. Back then, most of the trash came from wharves or was related to shipping. "We now see the problems related to development, especially with stormwater."
While more than 1,800 volunteers gathered more than 40 tons of trash, an estimated 20,000 tons enters the Anacostia and its tributaries each year, mainly through stormwater systems that act like a conveyor belt carrying litter and other trash from roads or parking lots to outfalls on the river or its tributaries.
Stream cleanups have become a rite of spring throughout much of the region, and the Anacostia cleanup was just one of scores that took place during April. It was also part of a larger cleanup by the Alice Ferguson Foundation that has been hauling trash out of the Potomac for 21 years.
Potomac volunteers pulled on their boots and gloves to wade shorelines and remove trash. They hauled away a car transmission, a washing machine, 1,000 tires and more than 245,000 cigarette butts. By mid-April, nearly 6,000 volunteers had participated in the monthlong cleanup and collected more than 156 tons of trash.
The biggest value of such cleanups, supporters say, often isn't the tons of trash removed, but the awareness it builds. Participants are often shocked at what they pull from streams and shorelines, and the efforts also attracts media attention.
"When we pick up trash, it doesn't solve the problem of trash," said Ginny Harris, the Potomac River Watershed Cleanup coordinator. But it does give people a chance to do something positive-and connect people to their watershed.
That doesn't mean cleanups don't make a difference-they can have a lasting impact at a given site. Victoria Stinson, who coordinates Project Clean Stream for the Alliance for the Chesapeake, said many organizations participating in the cleanup have to change locations each year. "Some of these sites have years and years and years of buildup. Then the volunteers have to find another site the next year, because there's not as much trash to be removed. So in my opinion, it's working."
On April 4, more than 2,300 Project Clean Stream volunteers cleaned 156 sites in 12 counties, removing more than 150 tons of trash, from the hood of a 57 Buick to couches.
Cleanups have also gone global.
Last September, the Ocean Conservancy coordinated a worldwide effort in which nearly 400,000 volunteers in 104 countries collected 6.5 million pounds of trash. That was about 400 pounds of debris for every mile of beach cleared.
"We simply cannot continue to put our trash in the ocean," said Vikki Spruill, president of the conservancy. "The evidence turns up every day in dead and injured marine life, littered beaches that discourage tourists, and choked ocean ecosystems."
Trash is more than an eyesore: Volunteers last September also found 443 animals and birds entangled or trapped in marine debris, releasing 268 that were still alive. Many are not so lucky. The Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation estimates that more than 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year after eating or getting entangled in plastic trash.
Others are injured or killed after eating bottle caps, toothbrushes and other debris. Sea turtles frequently mistake plastic bags for jellyfish - often a lethal error. Scientists recently found a dead sperm whale with 440 pounds of fishing gear in its stomach.
Trash in the Pacific is swept by currents into an area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or the Pacific Trash Vortex. It's not solid trash, but it contains far more than the average 46,000 pieces of plastic litter found in a square mile of ocean. In the patch, there is 6 times more trash than there is biomass, including fish, plankton and other life.
Much of that trash began as litter and other debris dropped or tossed far up some watershed. But some believe that tide of trash can be turned.
After organizing cleanups for 16 years, the Alice Ferguson Foundation in 2005 set a goal of achieving a trash-free Potomac by 2013. This fall it will hold its fourth annual Trash Summit to bring citizens and government officials together to plan trash-reduction strategies. More than 100 elected officials have signed a "trash treaty" that pledges to take actions that curb trash.
While a trash-free river may seem impossible, Harris noted that not long ago, it was common to smoke in the workplace and restaurants. "We've seen an incredible change. That was a casual act throughout society as well. We have to look at litter holistically as well-enforcement, culture, policy."
No single action will solve the problem. Cleanups raise awareness and can help change behavior. Some simple actions, such as placing trash traps in storm drains and sweeping streets can be effective.
But it'll also take regulation, which is starting to happen. Bills to regulate plastic bags died in Maryland and Virginia, but the District of Columbia Council is expected to act in May on a measure that would impose a 5-cent tax on every plastic and carryout bag from grocery, drug and liquor stores-and fast-food establishments.
Plastic bags account for nearly half of the trash found in tributaries to the Anacostia, according to a recent report.
Businesses could keep one or two cents, depending on whether they offer credit for reusable bags, and the rest would go to help clean up the Anacostia. A majority of the council has endorsed the measure, introduced by Council Member Tommy Wells.
Such actions could end up saving taxpayers money. The recent Anacostia River Trash Reduction Plan said it would cost District of Columbia residents about $32.4 million each year to keep trash from reaching the Anacostia. But it said the "costs can be greatly reduced with legislative solutions for plastic bags, Styrofoam and beverage cans and bottles."
Besides regulating plastic bags, the plan suggested placing a deposit on bottles and cans, which account for about 25 percent of the trash. It also said that use of foam containers could be restricted, an action taken in several California cities.
Taken together, those three legislative actions could reduce trash in the Anacostia's DC tributaries by 66 percent, the report said. Trash in the river itself could be cut 57 percent.
More regulations may be on the way. Total Maximum Daily Loads-regulatory plans to limit pollution to waterways-are being developed for trash in the Potomac, Anacostia and nearby areas. Only the Los Angeles River has a trash TMDL today.
That could result in such things as requirements in stormwater permits to help control trash. A stormwater permit recently issued to the District by the EPA called for actions such as street sweeping and regularly cleaning trash traps in storm drains.
"We're hoping the TMDL process is the beginning of the added measures that are needed to get the municipalities in the Anacostia watershed to take action," Reynolds said.
It may have taken more than a century to accomplish what Congress set out to do in 1896, but if the current mix of efforts are successful, their impact could reach far beyond the Potomac, and even the Bay.
