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The Anacostia River is a river that flows about 8.4 mi (13.5 km) from Prince George's County in Maryland, to cut through from east to south in Washington, DC, where it empties into the Potomac River. The Anacostia River was originally known simply as "the Eastern Branch."Heavy pollution in the Anacostia and weak investment and development along its banks have led to it becoming what many have called "DC's forgotten river." In recent years, however, private organizations, local businesses, and the DC, Maryland and federal governments have made joint efforts to reduce its pollution levels in order to protect the ecologically valuable Anacostia watershed.
The watershed of the river roughly covers 176 mi˛ (456 km˛) in Eastern Montgomery County and Northern Prince George's County, as well as parts of Washington, DC. Tributaries of the Anacostia include Northwest Branch and Northeast Branch, the confluence of which just above Bladensburg forms the main stem of the river; Sligo CreekSligo Creek is a free-flowing tributary of the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River, which feeds into the Potomac River and eventually emptys into the Atlantic Ocean via Chesapeake Bay. The creek is approximately 8. 3 statute miles (13. 4 km) long, wit, Paint Branch, Little Paint Branch, Indian Creek, Beaverdam Creek, Dueling Branch, and Brier Ditch flow into these two tributaries while Lower Beaverdam Creek, Hickory Run, and Watts Branch flow directly into the river.
- See also: List of Maryland riversThis is a list of rivers in the U. state of Maryland Anacostia River Antietam Creek Big Pipe River Catoctin River Chester River Choptank River Christina River Deer River Dividing River Elk River Gunpowder River Little Choptank River Little Monocacy River
1 Polution sources
One of the biggest problems facing the Anacostia River is raw sewageSewage is domestic, municipal, or industrial liquid waste products. How it is disposed varies by the area, and the local commitment to the environment. In some countries, notably the United States, national law mandates sanitary treatment of sewage, and o that enters the river and its tributaries thanks to antiquated sewerSewers transport wastewater from building to treatment facilities. Sewers are pipelines that connect buildings to horizontal 'mains', the sewer mains often connect to larger mains, and then to the wastewater treatment site. Vertical pipes, called manholes systems. The sewage creates a public health threat due to fecal coliform bacteria and other pathogens; it also impairs water quality and can create hypoxicHypoxia occurs when the oxygen content in a waterbody becomes so low that animals cannot function and die. Causes Natural hypoxia Water flowing from a river into the sea is lighter than salt water. When this water does not mingle enough with the underlyin conditions that lead to large fish kills.
WASA was sued by the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS) in 1999For the album by Prince, see 1999 (album 1999 is a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the UN. Events Kosovo War Former child star Gary Coleman files for bankruptcy Y2K prep for allowing more than 2 billion gallonThe gallon is a unit of volume used for measuring liquids. In the US a gallon is 3. 78541 litres: see U. customary units An Imperial gallon is 4. 54609 litres: see Imperial unit. At one time, the volume of a gallon depended on what you were measuring, ands (7.57 billion liters) of combined sewage and storm water to flow into the river via its antiquated combined sewer overflow system. In settling the lawsuit, WASA agreed to invest $140 million on pump station rehabilitation, pipe cleaning and maintenance and public notices of overflows.
In late 2004, AWS and other organizations announced plans to sue WSSC over similar problems with river contamination from the Maryland suburbs. According to WSSC, more than 4 million gallons (15.14 million liters) of raw sewage was released into Anacostia tributaries between January 2001 and June 2004. The discharges are due to breaks in older sewer lines as well as overwhelmed or failing pumps and clogged lines.
Another large source of river pollution is the Washington Navy Yard, which is sited alongside the river and is believed to be a source of PCB contaminants in the river and sediment.
