Current Campaigns

Six Legacy Toxic Sites Along River

Legacy toxic sites of the Anacostia River and
  known toxic sediments (click to enlarge)

• Kenilworth Park
• Washington Gas
• Washington Navy Yard
• Southeast Federal Center
• Poplar Point at Anacostia Park

Of these six sites, three are under some form of clean-up order 

• Washington Navy Yard is on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL).  The Navy has spent a lot of money on clean-up, which is ongoing.  
• The Southeast Federal Center is subject to a federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) clean-up order. 
• Poplar Point is being transferred from National Park Service (NPS) to DC, and as part of that transfer DC must come up with a plan to clean up the site before NPS approves the transfer.

The other three sites are without clean up agreements

Kenilworth Park, Pepco Benning Road, and Washington Gas are presently without clean up agreements, and so are of the most interest to AWS advocacy efforts.  In December 2010 AWS and Anacostia Riverkeeper filed a RCRA Notice of Intent to Sue to compel cleanup for the Washington Gas site.  We have not as yet filed that lawsuit; DDOE is engaged in negotiations with Washington Gas.  At Kenilworth Park NPS is completing a feasibility study in Summer 2011 and has committed to selecting a clean-up plan in Fall 2011, at which time there will be a public comment period.

Pepco Consent Decree

Pepco Benning Road is where activists have been the most engaged.  DDOE issued a draft consent decree for the site in early February 2011, publishing the agreement in the DC Register and advertising a 30-day comment period.  AWS and the Toxics Team expressed to DDOE on several occasions that they needed to engage the community before deciding on the remedy; DDOE has instead opted to engage the public after making the decision regarding site clean-up by making a public engagement plan part of Pepco’s responsibilities under the consent decree.  AWS submitted formal comments for the record, but ultimately felt that the legal shortcomings of the agreement were too serious for comments alone.  For this reason, AWS and Anacostia Riverkeeper, with legal representation by the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed a motion to intervene in the consent decree lawsuit between DC and Pepco.  Our goal in doing so is to represent the public interest to ensure the best clean-up possible for the affected communities and for the river.  While we await the judge’s decision on this motion, we are engaged in community outreach to raise citizen’s awareness of the issue.

• Press Release
• DC Register Notice
• Consent Decree Text