washington — instead of sleeping in on saturday morning, over a hundred volunteers turned to a day of action in honor of rev. martin luther king jr. day.

volunteers donned red gloves and headed into pope branch park to collect trash –– from plastic bottles to mattresses –– to honor the late civil rights leader. the event was planned for january 17, but was pushed back due to weather conditions. 

this year the total trash collected weighed 11,333 pounds. last year over 4,600 pounds of trash were removed from the area according to anacostia riverkeeper member trey sherard. 

“it’s a day on, not a day off,” dolly davis, president of the pope branch park restoration alliance, said about the intersection between environmental justice and mlk day. 

davis’ grandmother used to say a “community’s cleanliness is next to godliness;” she believes king represented the same message. davis works within her community to educate her neighbors, teaching how to properly recycle, build rain barrels and be more conscious of the environment.

king is remembered for his role in the civil rights movement, and inspires days of service across the country. 

“it really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” king said in a 1976 christmas sermon. “whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.”

davis said she believes in king’s message and wants to bring people together to enjoy the earth and instill his dream in her community. 

davis was one of several community leaders and members of local nonprofit organizations who worked with the environmental group anacostia riverkeeper in an annual event to clean up trash along the pope branch stream, which flows into the anacostia river.

the anacostia river is one of the rivers in the u.s. that was considered “impaired by trash” by the environmental protection agency over a decade ago.

christine burns of anacostia riverkeeper said trash that winds up in the stream will eventually flow into the river. the area in and around the park is often used as an illegal dumping site, she said. during the cleanup, volunteers found 290 tires illegally dumped off the anacostia freeway. 

“environmental activism is extremely important, especially in our watershed, and so using the mlk day of action to get people out here and participate is truly important,” burns said. 

will teass brought his two sons, austen and cole. teass’s company, teass warren architects, participates in the mlk day of service every year.

“i bring these guys along to teach about what we need to do in our community,” teass said. 

the two boys, both in elementary school, excitedly looked for trash with their grabbers and ran back to their father when they found litter. 

davis said she believes the collective efforts of the volunteers are what king envisioned when he spoke about change, but she wants city agencies to step in more and promote recycling and keeping communities clean.

“we shouldn’t be cleaning. we shouldn’t be out here today,” davis said. “we should not have people who [litter] or illegally dump. what we want to happen is to see more and more people to be responsive and responsible on how they recycle and throw away trash responsibility.”

now a giant machine, akin to a mechanical earthworm, denominated lady bird, burrowed deep under the city, creating a tunnel. this tunnel will serve to redirect sewage overflows, keeping the waste out of the city’s rivers on the occasions when the archaic sewage system becomes overwhelmed — a problem that has contributed to 3 billion gallons of raw sewage deposited into the anacostia and potomac annually.

this tunnel project is part of a larger commitment, $2.6 billion that d.c., along with the environmental protection agency, has invested in a the clean rivers project, a 20 year rivers cleanup initiative.

one report released by dc appleseed, a d.c.-based organization focused on solving problems affecting the district and its residents, stated that the anacostia river is one of the dirtiest in the country, practically unswimmable and for all safe purposes unfishable. yet, the rivers are still a hub for d.c. life. people boat and fish in both of the city’s rivers, and the banks house parks, stadiums and other centers of activity.

currently, the district’s sewer system dates back to the 1800s. it uses a combined approach, with one set of pipes for both sewage and stormwater. this means that with any storm that accumulates more than a quarter inch of rainfall, sewage flows into the rivers through 60 main overflow sites.

to give you an example of the extent of the problem, the highest rate of overflow for the last quarter of 2015 was the northeast boundary swirl effluent combined sewer overflow. there were 10 overflows in the quarter, which equaled spillage of 128.66 million gallons of sewage and flowed for just under 80 hours. to put it in perspective, this is enough sewage to fill just under 195 olympic swimming pools.

it’s estimated the new tunnel will cut those sewage overflows by 96%.

the machine used to create this tunnel is known as a tunnel boring machine, and consists of a cutterhead, scrapers, a giant screw and a conveyor belt. lady bird is 442 feet long (more than a football field in length, according to dc water), weighs 1,325 tons, and can move at a speed of 4 inches per minute.

to travel forward it braces itself against the sides of the concrete tunnel behind it and uses hydraulic jacks to propel itself forward as the cutterhead slowly rotates. the earth is loosened and mixed with a soapy, conditioning substance. it is then sucked into a giant screw which turns, carrying the muck to a conveyor belt, where it travels out of the tunnel to be disposed of at a dumping site.

after each push a new section of the tunnel is put up by workers, who make use of a mechanical arm to fit the pre-made sections into place. as the next shove occurs, grout is injected between the new tunnel and the outside dirt. workers lay down rails so the next section of tunnels can arrive and the cycle continues.

while lady bird has completed her section of the tunnel, as has a machine named lucy diggs slowe, named for one of the founders and first president of alpha kappa alpha sorority, and later an administrator at howard university. two other machines will continue to work. the third tunnel boring machine, named nannie after nannie helen burroughs, a civil rights activist who was very prominent in d.c. and helped provide education for african-american girls. nannie is digging the portion of the tunnel near rfk stadium, which will connect to the tunnel that lady bird is working on. the fourth machine, a micro tunnel boring machine simply called abigail, will connect lucy’s tunnel to existing sewers.

these tunnels, when combined with urban sustainability and green infrastructure projects such as distributing free rain barrels to residents and replacing asphalt with a more porous pavement, green roofs and rain gardens. all of these, and other efforts combine in the $2.6 billion, 20-year clean rivers project. in a decade, at the end of this initiative, district residents can expect to once again see rivers that are swimmable, fishable and compliant to the epa regulations.

this is a reality for 23.5 million americans, and that’s what a resident in the nation’s capital told us when we asked her about how she gets fresh produce.

a food desert is an area that has poor access to healthy food because a lack of supermarkets, farmer’s markets and grocery stores.

typically, food deserts are found in cities and the options surrounding residents are limited to fast food chains and small corner stores that do not supply healthy, nutritious options, perpetuating a cycle of chronic illness and obesity.

but what if a food desert area started growing its own food? that’s the solution stan jackson, president of the anacostia economic development corporation (aedc), was on the search for when he came across an opportunity to partner with brightfarms.

brightfarms will build an urban farm in ward 8 and partner with retail stores around the city (like giant) to sell produce. about two to five percent of the one million pounds of produce will go back to the residents of ward 8.

tackling the food desert problem in dc will not be easy – check out our infographic for more on what food deserts are and a map of how bad the problem is in dc – but this upcoming urban farm, which will use less water and produce higher and more stable yields, could be part of the solution.

do you or someone you know live in a food desert? are there food deserts in your community? join the conversation and let us know how long it takes you to get healthy food.

asthaa chaturvedi is a senior majoring in international affairs at the george washington university. jenny rabago is a senior majoring in journalism and biological anthropology at the george washington university.

remy tumin & kate galliers