I will be the first to admit that I was unsure of how the 5 cent bag tax approved by the city of Washington would work in cleaning up the Anacostia River without Maryland's involvement. But, it seems Maryland is stepping up to the plate by building several bioretention facilities The bioretentions facilities have been constructed over the last three months to reduce runoff and pollutants entering the northeast branch of the Anacostia River in Edmonston.
The work was done by the University of Maryland, College Park's chapter of Engineers Without Borders, the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership and the city of Edmonston.
Engineers Without Borders primarily works abroad, but this time the group decided to partner with the University of Maryland, College Park's A. James Clark School of Engineering to work on a problem a little closer to home.
The Anacostia is a highly polluted river, in large part due to urban runoff, the storm water draining from cities into the river, according to the National Resources Defense Council, a not-for-profit environmental protection group. The project team, consisting of students, faculty advisers and various professionals, designed a bioretention system and implemented it in a park owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission near Edmonston's Decatur Street, which will be the first "green," or fully environmentally responsible, street in Maryland.
The bioretention facilities take runoff water, in this case from parking lots and roads, and naturally treat it, said Kristen Markham, 21, one of the project leaders and recent UM graduate, who is returning in the fall for graduate school. The team designed trenches where the water could travel into the 15 feet by 30 feet bioretention area. There, the storm water goes through several natural filtering systems, including several layers of soil that help the water flow quickly, gravel, rocks and plants. Each technique naturally filters out pollutants.
The bioretention facility diverts storm water from the parking lot and road near the Edmonston Recreation Building into a natural filtration system.
It's a natural, passive way to treat runoff water that has pollutants. Water goes back into the river a lot cleaner than it was before."
The entire project, from deciding to work with the Anacostia river to its completion, took only six months, including getting approval for the project, meeting with officials, getting a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and implementing the design.
Our city's goal of making the Anacostia River a world-class waterfront comes one step closer to being realized.
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