Future Direction

The restoration that began ten years ago is still maturing and evolving. Efforts to restore and protect the ecological balance of the Anacostia have met with much success and have significantly contributed to improvements in the environmental condition of the watershed. However, we are still far from reaching our established goals. Recreational activities in the tidal river remain limited and in most cases are discouraged. Uncontrolled stormwater runoff and the high quantities of sediment and nonpoint source pollutants transported through the tributary system to the tidal river continue to be major problems. There is growing concern over toxic materials found in river sediments. Projected population increases are spurring development in headwater areas and additional roadway construction that will further aggravate water quality conditions and contribute increased pollutant loadings to an already overburdened system. There are also continuing concerns about trash and debris and the combined sewer overflows that plague the tidal river during significant rainfall events.

The question of how best to address these issues along with the revitalization of older Anacostia communities is often raised. Funding resources and support to continue current progress in the restoration effort are, as always, uncertain. The AWRC and its partners fully recognize the problems they face and have already identified many solutions. The following information is intended to provide some insight and thought to those challenges, as well as the future direction that the AWRC and the restoration must take.

1. Effectively integrate and involve citizens into the AWRC process.
The Anacostia watershed restoration effort is unusual in that the impetus for the effort stemmed from local, regional and state government, not from the grassroots citizenry as is more typical. As such, citizens were not directly involved with the AWRC from the outset. Over the years, the AWRC has worked to offer citizens of the watershed opportunities to participate in the restoration effort through its Small Habitat Improvement Program (SHIP). SHIP was designed to carry out small but meaningful restoration projects such as reforestation, wetland plantings, stream cleanups and storm drain stenciling. While this has been important, the AWRC felt that more citizen involvement and support was needed.

Recognizing this missing segment, the AWRC charged Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments staff with structuring the Anacostia Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee (AWCAC) and providing administrative support to the AWCAC. In Spring 1996, supported by the AWRC, the AWCAC was formally established and held its first meeting. The purpose of the AWCAC is to provide citizens residing within the watershed a formal line of communication to the AWRC regarding the restoration. It also permits the citizens an opportunity to develop ideas and activities in coordination with the AWRC that help promote environmental stewardship, as well as increase their understanding of the watershed, its environmental problems, and the ongoing restoration effort. In the future, it is critical that this structure be maintained and that opportunities be made to increase citizen involvement.

2. Identify and develop public-private partnerships.
To date, approximately 580 Anacostia restoration projects have been identified for the Anacostia watershed. Of these, about 29 percent have been either completed or are in progress. The remainder will require major financial resources, political will and citizen support to implement. In the spring of 1996, the AWRC also recognized that in order to help sustain the restoration progress, new public-private partnerships must be pursued and established. In light of this, the signatories of the 1987 Anacostia Watershed Restoration Agreement (Mayor of the District of Columbia, Governor of Maryland, and the County Executives from Prince George=s and Montgomery counties) called on the AWRC to identify potential public and private partnership opportunities. Through these new partnerships, additional resources and assistance could be tapped to help meet the needs of the restoration and help ensure continued progress.

3. Develop specific and quantifiable ecologically based restoration goals and associated targets with which to measure restoration progress.
As previously mentioned, the six restoration goals of the Six-Point Action Plan represent broad restoration concepts. In order to gauge restoration progress toward those broad goals, a series of measurable ecological indicators and associated restoration targets, specific to each indicator and subwatershed, will be needed. To partially fulfill this requirement, the District of Columbia=s Environmental Regulation Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency=s Chesapeake Bay Program Office and the AWRC have charged Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments staff with developing a system of watershed-wide ecological indicators and identification of potential restoration targets. This effort will be conducted in close concert with the local jurisdictions and with other agencies involved with the restoration, and where possible, will make use of existing ecological indicators and restoration targets already in use by the Anacostia jurisdictions. The vehicle for this cooperative effort will be the Anacostia Watershed Technical Oversight Subcommittee, an ad hoc technical subset of the larger AWRC membership.

4. Develop and maintain a viable, balanced monitoring network to provide data for the ecological indicators and restoration targets.
Ecological indicators and associated restoration targets will be developed cooperatively for the purpose of quantitatively assessing restoration progress for all six goals. In order to utilize this system of indicators and targets, a watershed-wide system of monitoring will be required. A long-term monitoring program will be developed and recommended to the AWRC. This program will be developed in conjunction with the member jurisdictions and many other involved agencies. It will include an examination of existing long-term programs to determine if any monitoring shortfalls exist. It is anticipated that this program will consist of a cost-effective, non-duplicative, scientifically balanced approach, which includes biological, physical and chemical components.

5. Close major gaps in the existing scope of the restoration effort.
While the restoration effort currently focuses upon numerous areas of restoration need, two major gaps remain: combined sewer overflow and toxic sediments. Both of these problems could require well over $1 billion to correct and are focused upon the tidal river in the District of Columbia. Combined sewers in the Anacostia contribute approximately 6 percent of the total watershed annual pollutant load (5,500,000 lbs/yr of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, lead, zinc, BOD and total suspended solids) from four major source areas. The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Administration is pursuing a comprehensive combined sewer overflow abatement program for all of the CSO areas within the District (to include the Anacostia, Potomac and Rock Creek drainage) to meet the goals of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency=s CSO Control Policy (Warner, et al., 1997). This initiative will require additional characterization monitoring and computer modeling to guide water resource managers toward the optimal approach for solving this major issue. The other major gap in the ongoing restoration effort consists of the remediation of contaminated sediments in the tidal portion of the river. The Anacostia watershed has been designated as a Region of Concern for toxic contamination by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency=s Chesapeake Bay Program. Elevated levels of contaminants that include total hydrocarbons, Chlordane, DDT and its metabolites, lead and PCBs have been consistently observed in various monitoring surveys throughout the tidal river in the District of Columbia. As previously stated, a fish consumption advisory remains in effect within District waters due to the bioaccumulation of Chlordane and PCBs and the human risk associated with eating fish.

In response, a Regional Action Plan for managing toxics in the sediments has recently been developed by the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin for the District of Columbia Environmental Regulation Administration (DC ERA, 1996). The plan represents a first step in managing this problem. It features an overview of the problem, volumetric estimates of contamination, a discussion of potential remediation options and associated costs estimates. Management efforts are currently hampered by the absence of information regarding the existing sources of contaminants, both within the District of Columbia and upstream, from Montgomery and Prince George=s counties, Maryland. Efforts are currently underway to identify the existence of any pertinent data in the upstream jurisdictions. Similar to the previously discussed CSO issue, sufficient monitoring to adequately characterize the input of toxicants into the system must first be collected, then modeling efforts to define the active fate and transport mechanisms for these compounds must be developed prior to undertaking any large-scale comprehensive management initiatives. In the shorter term, small-scale remediation pilot measures, such as capping, may be undertaken to determine the potential feasibility of physically isolating contaminants.

6. Explore, identify and create pathways for the cost-effective integration of Federal programs and initiatives with relevance to the Anacostia watershed restoration.
Various avenues to optimize Federal involvement and financial support will be investigated. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working in partnership with the AWRC and Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments staff to identify problems and to recommend solutions for Federal facilities within the watershed (comprising approximately 15 percent of the total watershed area). This effort includes the Congressionally mandated Anacostia Federal Facilities Impact Assessment project. In addition to working with the individual Federal land owners in the watershed, efforts are underway to integrate ongoing programs, currently existing within various natural resource management agencies, to optimize the use of Federal human and financial resources toward achieving the restoration of the watershed.

7. Pursue and maintain a closer working relationship with the local Congressional delegation.
Discussions are ongoing with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff to identify existing legislative authorization which could be helpful in directing resources to the long-term restoration of the Anacostia watershed. Once a comprehensive review of existing legislation is conducted and compiled, the AWRC is expected to initiate a series of discussions with the local Congressional delegation to solicit their ideas, legislative support and assistance for the numerous remaining restoration initiatives.

8. Develop a Comprehensive Restoration Plan featuring authorship and input from all stakeholders involved in the Anacostia watershed restoration.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments will work cooperatively with the AWRC members to develop a Comprehensive Restoration Plan for the Anacostia watershed. Input from the local jurisdictions and various stakeholders will be critical to obtaining widespread authorship and endorsement of the plan. Existing problems and needs will be prioritized to assist in guiding various implementation strategies. It is envisioned to function as a working, living document to help guide the focus and priorities of the restoration effort. It is expected that, over time and as changing situations in the watershed dictate, the plan will be revisited and updated to reflect the dynamic nature of the restoration effort. Importantly, the plan will not supersede local restoration priorities established to date through comprehensive watershed planning efforts, such as Montgomery County=s Countywide Stream Protection Strategy.

As the restoration effort enters its second decade, priorities will continue to change. In many areas, with the notable exceptions of long-term stream channel geomorphology and sediment transport dynamics, combined sewer overflow and toxics problems, we not only understand the problems, but have developed solutions specific to them in the form of retrofit and restoration projects. Even in the areas representing the current major gaps of the restoration effort, we understand the general parameters of those gaps.

A huge early revelation in this process has been an appreciation of not only the scope of the problems, but also an appreciation of the time required to bring about a meaningful restoration of the watershed. While time is relatively plentiful, the political will and financial resources required to implement the identified restoration projects and conduct additional monitoring and research are limited. Among the major current impediments in the pace and momentum of the restoration are funding, publicly approved subwatershed-specific restoration plans and a dwindling supply of "easy" publicly owned restoration sites. With the contracting local and state financial climate of the mid 1990s, there has been a slowing of implementation and an associated lessening of momentum. In addition, the success of the Anacostia restoration effort has spawned similar restoration efforts in other large watersheds in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia. As a result, the Anacostia is now competing with other watersheds for a shrinking pool of funding.

From the start, the twin pillars critical to ensuring the long-term success of the restoration effort have been human and financial resources. If we can continue to build upon and maintain a broadly based coalition of citizens, environmental groups, all levels of government, and the private sector, we should be able to translate that energy into Congressional support for funding a broad spectrum of watershed restoration-related programs, projects and initiatives. The Anacostia watershed restoration effort has been designated as a National Ecosystem Management Model on the strength of its success to date. It is critical that sufficient local, state and Federal resources are directed and applied in a well-planned sequence to sustain the effort and to maintain and expand this unique example of urban watershed restoration.