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seeking a swimmable d.c.: water quality monitoring in rock creek

mon, 22 may 2023 18:42:41 +0000

as another hot d.c. summer encroaches, the 19,000 people living near rock creek will need to find a way to cool off — but not in the water.

while the waters may look idyllic, a century-old sewage system and dangerously high levels of bacteria have made the urban national park unswimmable for decades. now, a team of volunteers is working to change that, one water sample at a time.

no-swim zone

d.c. residents know that swimming in the city’s waterways is not the best idea — in fact, it’s been illegal since 1971. lorde shocked concert goers and made national news last year when she claimed to float in the potomac before her show. there’s a stigma around the cleanliness of these rivers from decades of pollution, but in recent years, the waterways have been slowly improving.

the environmental protection agency has been trying to make the city’s waterways swimmable and fishable since the clean water act of 1972. while the original ten-year timeline for that goal passed forty years ago, the act set in motion a clean water agenda the city is hoping to reach in the next few years.

in 2019, city officials began floating the idea of relaxing or lifting the swim ban. but even after decades of cleaning up the waterways, environmentalists question whether the water is safe enough to open to public swimming. data from the d.c. volunteer water quality monitoring project is helping shed light on the state of the city’s rivers and streams.

signs in rock creek park warn park-goers and their pets to stay out of the water. (sophie kahler)

watching the waterways

on a cool day in early may, the ground is damp and the water is high in rock creek park. it’s the first day of the 2023 water monitoring season, an overcast morning after several days of on-and-off rain.

landrum beard, community engagement coordinator at rock creek conservancy, sits under a picnic pavilion at a table lined with small red coolers for volunteers to pick up with their water testing kits. they’ll head out toward their assigned sites, marked with ribbons, along the creek and return with the coolers filled with water samples, which are taken to anacostia riverkeeper’s lab for testing.

anacostia riverkeeper launched the d.c. volunteer water quality monitoring project in 2018 to measure and track contamination levels in d.c.’s main waterways: the anacostia river, the potomac river, and rock creek.

with a $140,000 grant from the d.c. department of energy and environment, the project has grown into a collaboration between anacostia riverkeeper, alliance for the chesapeake bay, rock creek conservancy, and nature forward. the groups have trained almost 400 volunteers from all eight wards of the city, collecting more than 2,000 water samples from 2019 to 2022.

each wednesday morning from may to september — considered the outdoor recreational season — teams of volunteers take water samples at two dozen sites across the city and test for ph balance, e. coli levels, water temperature, air temperature, and turbidity, a measure of water clarity. they also note if they see anyone in the water, as many people and their pets still wade in the creek despite park signs warning against it. the results are posted each friday and updated in the swim guide app, which lets users check the water quality of nearby beaches.

volunteers record the temperature, ph, bacteria, and turbidity levels of the water using the materials in the program’s kits. (sophie kahler)

they drop their samples off in a large cooler, which are then taken to the anacostia riverkeeper’s lab for testing. (zoe swiss)

most of the volunteers are consistent, beard says. there are some newcomers on this first day of the new season, but others have been a part of the program for years.

benita veskimets is one of those veteran volunteers. veskimets, who used to work in fundraising for rock creek conservancy, is in her fourth year of water sampling. “i’m really curious to see what happens this year,” she says. “last year, i feel like it was worse than the year before.”

only a few of the rock creek sites passed with safe bacteria levels last year, beard confirms. those were mostly on dry weeks, when there was little or no rainfall impacting the stormwater sewage overflow. this morning is not one of those times. after a rainy week, the creek is likely swimming with bacteria from runoff. not the best way to kick off the season, he admits.

rock creek park’s sewage problem

the root of this problem lies with infrastructure, and if you’ve ever walked through rock creek park after a rainstorm, you can smell why.

after just half an inch of rainfall, hazardous waste and sewage flood into the creek from the city’s old combined sewer infrastructure. in this system, stormwater and sewage flow through the same pipes — and when it rains, they quickly fill up and overflow into the rivers. rock creek is considered dangerously contaminated when that happens, and recreators are advised to avoid the waterway for up to three days afterward.

volunteers have tracked that trend at the sampling areas. “all these sites, for the most part, have a storm drain a few hundred feet or so upstream from where the sampling site is,” beard said. “so after big rain events, we always see that the sites have extremely high bacteria.”

d.c. water is now working on a $2.6 billion overhaul to the city’s sewage system with the goal of redirecting some of these sewage lines away from the city’s waterways and back toward treatment plants. this plan, the clean river project, is set to be completed in 2030.

in the current phase of the project, the national park service is teaming up with d.c. water to take on piney branch creek, one of rock creek’s main tributaries and victims of contamination. an estimated 39 million gallons of sewage and stormwater pour into the creek each year.

(sophie kahler)

piney branch is the largest outfall in the rock creek watershed, with runoff and sewage from 2,400 acres of urban neighborhoods flowing through. (sophie kahler)

“the way to do it is to build bigger pipes under the ground that can handle all the sewage and the stormwater and keep it in the pipes and get it down to the treatment plant,” said steve dryden, a local conservationist who has worked in the piney branch area for years.

the city is expanding these pipes, aiming to reduce the amount of sewage flowing into the three waterways by 96 percent. it’s part of a hybrid plan for rock creek that includes both traditional “grey infrastructure” — like basins, drains, and pipes — and new “green infrastructure,” such as rain gardens and permeable pavers in 365 acres of the surrounding urban areas. a pilot program for this green infrastructure plan reduced runoff into the creek by nearly one fifth, surpassing d.c. water’s goals.

but sewage overflow and runoff after rainfall is not the only contamination source in rock creek. the water quality monitoring project reports that some sites have had persistently high levels of bacteria even during dry weather, which may be caused by “outdated infrastructure, leaking sewer pipes, or uninvestigated point-source pollution.”

jeanne braha, executive director of rock creek conservancy, said this may also come from pet waste and houses or businesses with sewer pipes that are accidentally hooked up to storm drain pipes that flow into the creek. construction in the urban area is another contributor, veskimets adds. while the potomac and anacostia bacteria levels are a direct result of combined sewer overflows, rock creek’s contamination comes from several sources — making solutions harder to find.

one sample at a time

while solving rock creek’s water contamination problem is a long process, participants in the d.c. volunteer water quality monitoring project are ensuring that city officials and environmentalists have the data to help.

the potomac and anacostia rivers have been slowly improving in water quality since the anacostia was once dubbed “one of the most polluted waterways in the nation.” people debate whether the rivers have recovered enough to be swimmable.

“i think we’re getting there,” said louis eby, a longtime water quality volunteer and former attorney advisor in the epa’s office of water. he’s seen a lot of progress in the two rivers, but remains cautious about rock creek.

“i wouldn’t swim in rock creek,” he said. “we’ll get there some day for rock creek, but not soon.”

sure enough, the rain in early may was a forecast of remaining challenges. both upper and lower rock creek sites reported unsafe e. coli and ph levels in the first week of monitoring.

still, citizen scientists will continue to keep tabs on the water quality each week. as soon as rock creek is finally swimmable, they’ll be the first to know.

as the summer recreation season kicks off, people flock to d.c.’s waterways for kayaking, paddleboarding, and sightseeing — and one day soon, they might be able to safely swim in them.

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dc community activists win electric bus fleet in ward 4

tue, 11 apr 2023 15:14:50 +0000

by sophie kahler and zoe swiss

taalib-din uqdah never expected to be an environmental activist — not in his wildest dreams. he was the kid who loved going to gas stations just to “stick my head out the back of the window and smell the gasoline.”

nowadays, uqdah is no fan of petrol — especially in public transit. the 70-year-old business owner, community activist, and washington, d.c., native is spearheading efforts to overhaul the renovation of the washington metropolitan area transit authority’s (wmata) northern bus garage in ward 4 of the city. in january, those efforts paid off when wmata announced that the northern bus garage will reopen with an all-electric bus fleet in 2027 — the first entirely electric, zero-emission garage in the city.

the commitment to an all-electric bus fleet represents a culmination of years of advocacy and community organizing. when wmata announced the renovation in 2018, the agency’s fleet management plan included buses running on compressed natural gas, standard diesel, “clean diesel” and hybrid fuels.
wmata considered all but standard diesel to be “clean fuel,” but even hybrid fuels contribute to the climate crisis. battery-powered electric buses provide more sustainable benefits by eliminating the use of fossil fuels, improving air quality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and lowering noise pollution.

the bus renovation debate

located on a large lot between d.c.’s sixteenth street heights and petworth neighborhoods, the northern bus garage — also known as the northern bus barn — is surrounded by residential homes and retail businesses on 14th street. the facility has been operational since 1906, first as a barn for electric streetcars and later for traditional buses.

the historic facade of the northern bus barn along 14th street.

by 2018, the bus garage was in need of repair. rather than locate a new lot, wmata chose to renovate the garage for convenience and proximity to a high ridership corridor. they planned to demolish everything but the garage’s historic facade on 14th street and construct a mixed-use development to house over 200 buses and about 50,000 square feet of space for commercial space. the garage was set to include infrastructure for 175 electric buses — but wmata didn’t have these buses, or any plan to make the switch to electric.

many community members weren’t sold on the plan. some wanted the bus garage gone completely. some wanted it redeveloped into a grocery store or affordable housing. others wanted it to house electric buses. residents living near the garage brought up noise pollution and health concerns, such as asthma, which they say trace back to the diesel fumes of the buses.

uqdah, who has lived near the bus garage since 1984, immediately took interest in the project. he saw it as an important factor in the community’s quality of life, and he created the northern bus barn neighbors to organize community members against wmata’s plan to bring gas and diesel buses back to the garage. red signs began popping up in residents’ yards proclaiming, “no! bus diesel fumes”

taalib-din uqdah holds his northern bus barn neighbors sign outside the garage. (zoe swiss)

diesel in the air

uqdah was especially concerned about diesel particulate matter, a part of exhaust that contains gas and soot particles, and nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel-powered vehicles. air pollution from diesel exhaust has long been linked to adverse health effects including asthma, neuroinflammation, cardiovascular disease and lung cancer, even in particle-filtered exhaust. in 2012, the world health organization classified diesel engine exhaust as “carcinogenic to humans” for causing an increased risk of lung cancer.

new research shows that exposure to diesel exhaust for even brief periods of time may cause cognitive impairment as well by disrupting the connectivity between brain regions.

and the impacts of air pollution disproportionately affect minority communities. in d.c. — which the american lung association gave a “c” rating for particle pollution last year — black residents are 126% more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than white residents as of 2021.

ward 4 councilmember janeese lewis george cited this disparity in her remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the northern bus garage in january.

“when we talk about reducing diesel fumes in our neighborhoods, we know that it is both an environmental justice issue and a racial justice issue,” the councilmember said. in ward 4, the area lewis george represents, about 45% of the population is black.

uqdah and other community members have expressed their views in public meetings with wmata since 2019, with nearly 100 people sending messages to the wmata board about bus electrification at one meeting in october of 2020. many of those messages urged wmata not to reopen the garage unless the bus fleet would be fully electrified, often noting health concerns.

“i live in this neighborhood. my children have asthma. adding more diesel buses is a huge threat to our health and the environmental pollution is a terrible, terrible thing,” said resident blythe emigholz of sixteenth street heights.

“we are very concerned. we’ve been making our voices clear at meetings, but it seems like there’s no response to the environmental concerns that have been voiced by these neighbors.”

construction trailers and fencing line the perimeter of the bus garage on arkansas and buchanan streets nw. (zoe swiss)

a greener future

councilmember lewis george became involved in the advocacy as she was knocking doors on the 2020 campaign trail, hearing similar stories from countless ward 4 residents. once elected, she began pushing for bus electrification on the d.c. city council.

wmata got on board in june 2021, approving a plan to shift to a zero-emission electric bus fleet over the next 20 years. their aim was to replace the existing gas and diesel buses by 2045 in accordance with the 2018 clean energy d.c. act – the northern bus garage was set to house 150 of these electric buses. it was a step in the right direction, but many in the community were not satisfied with the far-off date.

“two and a half decades is far too long to wait for public transit that aligns with our region’s sustainability goals and the urgent reality of climate change,” said lewis george.

city officials and community members continued negotiating, and in january 2023, wmata announced that the northern bus garage fleet would be entirely electric by 2027 — 18 years sooner than the initial date. the garage will feature rooftop solar panels that are expected to generate 726,000 kwh/year, electric vehicle charging stations for parking, and a leed platinum rating.

at the groundbreaking ceremony on january 25, councilmember lewis george acknowledged the efforts of community activists like uqdah and thanked them for pushing the initiative through.

“an all zero-emission bus garage is a monumental step towards a sustainable future as we confront the urgent reality of climate change in our city, in our country, and across the world,” said lewis george.

“this northern bus barn will make wmata, as it always has been, and dc, as it always has been… a national leader in providing green public transit that does right by our communities and by our planet.”

the electrification of the bus garage is just one piece in a community revitalization project that uqdah hopes will bring more business and affordable housing to the sixteenth street heights and ward 4 communities.

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this spring, a changing environment for rock creek park’s songbirds

tue, 28 mar 2023 17:45:01 +0000

on a warm and sunny day in early march, you might be able to spot a few birds perched in the budding trees of rock creek park — and if you listen closely, you can hear them.

though it’s early in the season for the area’s songbirds, the chirps and calls of some species are a sign of what’s to come as temperatures warm and flowers bloom. but this spring highlights a challenging trend: fewer songbirds are returning to the park each year.

rock creek park has long been a hotspot for birders to watch the migration of northbound songbirds each spring. positioned along the atlantic flyway migration route, d.c.’s largest park is home to a variety of birds passing through each year on their return from the winter retreat to warmer climates.

“a key part of the park’s value is as a safe migration route for birds that are traveling north and south,” said bill yeaman, the national park service’s resource management specialist for rock creek park.

to the casual park goer, rock creek park seems inundated with birds each spring. but changing migration patterns and habitat disruption mean that songbirds are disappearing from the area, leaving conservationists concerned about the future of the park’s biodiversity.

the vanishing songbird

over 150 species of birds call the 1,754-acre rock creek park home. many of those species are migratory birds that inhabit the park during the warmer months and migrate south to central and south america for the winter. but each year, fewer birds are making the thousand-mile journey. a 2019 study revealed that the bird population of north america plummeted by almost a third since 1970, resulting in a net loss of nearly three billion birds.

one species falling victim to this trend is the wood thrush, a small, cinnamon-brown songbird with striking black spots — the official bird of d.c. the wood thrush population in the united states has decreased by more than 60% since 1966.

the wood thrush, d.c.’s official bird. (larry hubble/flickr)

yeaman has noticed this decline in rock creek park.

“wood thrush, which is a bird that likes to nest in the interior, as well as scarlet tanagers, red-eyed vireos, ovenbirds — these are interior birds whose numbers have dramatically gone down,” he said.

that loss has been traced primarily to the destruction of the birds’ north american habitat, where they spend roughly half the year from april to october in eastern deciduous forests. but their winter habitats in tropical forests from mexico to colombia are changing as well.

“the habitat in general for that kind of environment is shrinking throughout the country and certainly in central america… it’s a loss of habitat on both ends of their journey,” yeaman said.

environmental threats

songbirds prefer dense, lush forests to breed in, and the loss of viable forested areas within the park has several causes. urban development has disrupted much of d.c.‘s once-forested areas, including the piney branch stream valley in the southeastern section of rock creek park. after the tributary was paved over to create piney branch parkway in the 1930s, trees that grew along the banks disappeared, reducing the songbird habitat.

human recreation within the park erodes the habitat as well.

“our biggest problem is what we call social or unauthorized trails, which have been created over time with more and more people in the park,” yeaman said. “it disturbs habitats, it compromises the integrity of the forest, and each trail has its own side effects in terms of protecting sensitive habitats.”

he notes that canine park visitors are a concern as well, as unleashed dogs wander through the woods and disturb the conditions off-trail.

vulnerable habitats exacerbate competition between species, and in rock creek park, a large deer population poses an issue for songbirds. in recent years, the park’s white-tailed deer population hit almost 100 deer per square mile — five times the national park service’s goal — which means that deer are overgrazing on trees like maples and hemlocks where songbirds live and feast on insects.

but while plants are dwindling in some places, they are taking over in others. invasive, or non-native, plant species such as bush honeysuckle, english ivy, and bamboo disturb the ecosystem by reducing birds’ native food sources and depleting the fertility of the soil.

“native plants are greatly compromised by invasives,” explained yeaman. “without that [native] food source, you’re affecting the food chain at the insect level, which is the basis for everything above them, including songbirds.”

when springtime comes too soon

new research suggests that ‘early spring’ may be affecting migration patterns as well — that’s the recent phenomenon of warm weather arriving earlier in the year, causing premature blooming and shifting the migration timeline.

migratory songbirds travel with the weather — if winter lasts longer, they’ll stay down south; if spring arrives early, they’ll head north with it. and as climate change accelerates, spring temperatures are beginning earlier each year. some regions of the u.s. are experiencing springtime weather an average of six to 18 days earlier than usual.

that means birds are shifting their migration patterns. songbirds with shorter migration routes like the pine warbler and american robin are picking up on signs of the changing seasons and migrating northward earlier, but species with longer routes from central and south america are falling behind.

male birds are seemingly adapting to these changes better, returning to breeding grounds an average of one week before females. these gaps could pose reproductive challenges for birds and cause them to be out of sync with their fledglings’ food supply.

pine warblers migrate shorter distances than most songbirds, staying in the american southeast and returning north as early as february. (dennis church/flickr)

conservationists in rock creek park are worried about how songbirds will weather the changes.

“those fresh leaves that come out in the spring are very tender and don’t have as many toxins — they’re very tasty for insects,” said steve dryden, a local conservationist and who has been involved with the d.c. audubon society and rock creek conservancy.

“if leaves start blooming earlier, and the insects start eating them earlier, that whole cycle gets thrown off and it might be bad for the reproduction of the birds. the birds are used to coming at a certain time in the spring. they may be too late.”

scientists are still tracking these seasonal shifts, which are changing with the effects of climate change. in the meantime, experts are focusing on habitat preservation and restoration to ensure songbirds have a place to return to each year.

preservation and protection

environmental groups in the d.c. area are working to protect and cultivate the forests of rock creek park that are still viable songbird habitats.

when dryden learned about the plight of the wood thrush in 2013, he launched an initiative to help restore songbird habitats in the park. today, rock creek songbirds has raised over $150,000 and planted more than 600 native trees in rock creek parks’s piney branch.

working with local schools and community groups, dryden has become a steward of piney branch by creating lush habitats that support not only songbirds, but all biodiversity in the park. dryden and volunteers with rock creek songbirds remove invasive plants, clean up litter, plant new trees, and monitor the restoration projects.

rock creek songbirds has been a steward of the piney branch area of rock creek park since 2013 when their founder, steve dryden, heard about the disappearing habitat of the city’s official bird, the wood thrush. the organization works with local schools and community groups to plant trees and create areas catered to songbird habitation.

about photo

zoe swiss

dryden and his dog, teddy, regularly visit the restoration area to check up on the plants and animals. he picks up some strewn beer cans and makes a note to repair part of a fence that’s fallen down. although the wood thrush was the original impetus for his project, he’s interested in strengthening the biodiversity of the whole park. “when you get right down to it, if you’re improving the habitat for one species, you’re improving it for many,” he said.

about photo

sophie kahler

one of rock creek songbirds’ restoration projects lies just yards off piney branch parkway near rock creek park’s picnic pavilion 29. the area was originally a heavily forested stream valley but was closed off to create piney branch parkway in the 1930s followed by residential, commercial, and other urban development. from the road, the area looks unassuming, but dryden and volunteers have spent years planting trees, grasses, and other plants to restore the wetland habitat.

about photo

zoe swiss

the organization has planted more than 600 native trees in the piney branch area in the past decade. the region was once a biodiverse “magnolia bog” home to sweetbay magnolia, highbush blueberry, sphagnum moss, and other plants that grow in the swampy acidic soil.

about photo

sophie kahler

rock creek songbirds sources saplings from earth sangha, a non-profit nursery in alexandria, virginia. earth sangha exclusively grows trees native to local forests and meadows as a way to help native species flourish and to practice the buddhist value of conservation. dryden and the volunteers at rock creek songbirds choose trees that attract butterflies and other insects that are a food source for songbirds.

about photo

zoe swiss

the organization places tree guards around newly-planted saplings to protect their young trunks from animals like deer, who rub their antlers on the bark.

about photo

sophie kahler

one native plant that helps prevent deer browse is northern spicebush, named for the spicy taste that deer dislike. the plants bloom glossy red berries that songbirds eat in the spring.

about photo

zoe swiss

dryden samples the watercress that grows in the piney branch area. animals like ducks and deer also eat the slightly peppery vegetable.

about photo

sophie kahler

the rock creek conservancy is protecting bird habitats by developing mini-oases throughout the park to remove invasive species from one small area at a time. they regularly host cleanup events and train a group of volunteers known as weed warriors to tackle these invasive species sites.

“our goal is to reduce invasive cover to less than 5%, to reduce the stress on the trees and to hopefully let the forest recover,” said the conservancy’s executive director jeanne braha.

and the national park service is doing its part to preserve songbird habitats in rock creek park by regulating human recreation and educating visitors about best practices. they even organize people to engage in community science efforts like the audubon christmas bird count. each christmas, yeaman ventures into the park early in the morning with volunteers to count and track all the birds they see that day. the 123-year-old tradition helps conservationists and researchers understand current bird populations.

bringing it home

according to yeaman, people can help protect songbirds from their own backyards by planting native shrubs and trees. if you’ve got a windowsill, you can plant native wildflowers.

“people can do these things on their property to help. it would improve just the general condition of the environment, including songbirds habitats.”

and of course, the rock creek songbirds, rock creek conservancy, and the national park service are always in need of volunteers to help bring the music of songbirds back to the park.

as d.c. enters springtime, the songbirds will flock to rock creek park, nesting among the trees after a long journey north. they will continue to do so, year after year, as long as we make sure they have a safe place to fly home to.

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food rescuers: food recovery in the capital

fri, 17 jun 2022 13:00:00 +0000

even before the pandemic, one in 10 washington, d.c., households reported being food insecure, with black families 13 times more likely to be food insecure than white families. gentrification and income inequality, which have contributed to this food insecurity, have also divided what was once known as “chocolate city” into one d.c. that is predominantly white, wealthy, and transplant, and another dc that is predominantly black, low-income, and local to the district.

on a larger scale, food insecurity remains a pressing issue, but up to 40% of the food supply in the u.s. is wasted per year, contributing to 8% of greenhouse gas emissions. in d.c., the food recovery network is trying to fight both food insecurity and food waste.

in this mini-documentary, planet forward comcast sustainable storytelling fellow jelina liu provides a look into the extensive food recovery network in the united states’ capital.

with the help of technology and many volunteers, this network helps battle food waste, the climate crisis, and food insecurity, all at the same time.

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editor’s note: this short film was produced as part of the planet forward-comcast nbcuniversal sustainable storytelling fellowship.

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volunteers mark martin luther king day with environmental service

wed, 26 jan 2022 17:00:33 +0000

by isabel miller

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.

six-year-old bill jack helps move tires illegally dumped in pope branch park on saturday. the park is sometimes used as an illegal dumping site according to trey sherard of anacostia riverkeeper. (isabel miller/medill news service)

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.”

bags of trash collected by volunteers sit before being sorted by volunteers. (isabel miller/medill news service)

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farmers markets: the underdogs of 2020

mon, 26 oct 2020 05:15:03 +0000

every week, fresh goat’s milk, cheese, and “goatgurt” is driven from shepherd’s whey creamery in martinsburg, west virginia, to farmers markets as close as nearby charles town and as far away as washington, d.c. when covid-19 hit, owner suzanne behrmann said that some local markets responded “pretty dramatically.”

“one of them shut down completely and then opened as a drive-through market and that was a complete disaster,” she said. “we would get two or three orders a week, not even making $20. it was just a real dead experience.”

it took markets shifting back to something resembling a traditional experience for behrmann and her small goat herd to see sales recover. this is a bumpy ride that many farmers market vendors in the d.c. area have experienced since the early months of the year.

deemed essential services, d.c. farmers markets remained open since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic – but in order to keep vendors, staff, and customers safe, markets had to make sudden changes.

m.farmers markets across the country provide the unique opportunity for customers to purchase food directly from producers and, likewise, for farmers to connect with customers face-to-face. this can boost local economies and reduce the amount of energy needed to transport food across long distances.

in d.c., farmers markets also provide additional incentives for low-income families. most d.c. farmers markets accept snap and wic benefits, as well as benefits for senior citizens. many farmers markets in d.c. also “match” customers’ snap benefits so that each dollar can purchase more fresh produce.

since march, the d.c. government has required farmers markets to comply with public health regulations by promoting social distancing and mask wearing. markets must provide hand washing stations and vendor stalls may not offer samples. customers also must be encouraged not to touch products before purchasing.

these practices are in place at the d.c. farmers markets currently run by freshfarm, a nonprofit that operates more than 20 markets in the washington, d.c., metro area. derel farmer, freshfarm’s community outreach manager, said that the pandemic has forced market operators “to pretty much reinvent how we do business.”

“we understand that the farmer’s market is one of the few large, open venues left at this time,” he said. “there are very few other opportunities where large amounts of people can come interact and do so safely, so we are committed to making sure we keep this space open for people.”

this means offering pre-orders from many vendors for market pick-up or delivery. market vendors must assign staff to manage either money or product but not both, and they are encouraged to prioritize contactless payment options.

it also means deciding not to open several markets this year, such as the white house and foggy bottom markets, which have lost customers due to the pandemic.

freshfarm vendors said that although they are pleased with the safety practices in place, it is not business as usual. dana garner boyle, owner of garners produce in virginia, said that she has had to hire additional staff to manage her farmers market stall amidst health restrictions.

“we have stuck to the routine of gathering the items for the customer,” she said. “that’s extra work because it ties up our time when we could be chatting with the customer or refilling and restocking. so we have to hire extra staff to help get all that done and manage our lines so that everybody can maintain distance at the market better.”

boyle added that it breaks her heart that customers are not allowed to choose their own products, which is “so much a personal choice.”

“i really can’t pick out tomatoes that would suit everybody because that’s something different,” she said. “so we just kind of make a joke of that, like, ‘i will be so glad when y’all are able to pick your own tomatoes!’”

behrmann of shepherd’s whey creamery misses selling samples of her varieties of goat’s cheese, which she said “is a huge part of our selling strategy.”

“because artisan goat cheese is not a necessarily familiar product to many of our customers – it makes so much variation, depending on the individual producer of the cheese – it’s really difficult for people to know what they’re buying and to be willing to invest in something that they don’t have any idea about,” she said.

sustainability is also a concern. zach vandezande, the head of pr and publishing for number 1 sons, a small business that sells pickles, kimchi, and kombucha at d.c. farmers markets, said the business previously encouraged customers to take purchased products home in their own containers. due to sanitation concerns, the business has switched to packaging the products beforehand.

vandezande said number 1 sons is trying to balance how they can “stay as environmentally conscious and as environmentally responsible as possible while keeping people safe,” and added that this shift has been a “big touchstone” for the business’s customers.

nevertheless, markets like freshfarm’s have taken this opportunity to innovate rather than crumble. while leaving several markets unopened this season, freshfarm also opened a new market in virginia. farmer added that freshfarm also plans to extend several of its markets further into the winter to provide more time for vendors to sell their products.

freshfarm has also extended its snap matching program to all its markets. this comes at an important time, as recent data reveals that the number of american adults who reported that members of their households “sometimes or often did not have enough to eat” surged to more than 26 million americans in 2020, increasing the need for programs like snap.

farmer said that customer feedback to the market’s effort to balance safety and accessibility has been largely positive.

“the one thing that we hear over and over again is ‘thank you,’” he said. “‘thank you for doing this. thank you for being here.’”

boyle of garners produce said that she has seen steady business at her farm stand since the start of the pandemic.

“i think between our roadside market and the farmers market we’ve consistently stayed busy because people feel like their food has been handled less – it’s picked one day, it’s brought and sold the next – and it’s outdoor shopping,” she said. “so i think they feel a lot safer buying food at a market than they do in the grocery stores right now.”

vandezande of number 1 sons said he thinks customers are still attracted to farmers markets because there are “human stories” behind the products, and “those human stories matter.”

“one of the reasons people go to farmers markets is because they want to return to the idea that the land is connected, the product is connected to a human being who is making their living,” he said and contrasted the markets to grocery stores, where “food just appears as if by magic.”

at the end of the day, farmers markets remain essential to behrmann and her goat herd. she said that farmers markets are the only venues she has found that give small farmers access to the marketplace, and where she can receive immediate, direct feedback from her customers.

“i can’t imagine being a farmer where i just send it off to a distributor and never got to get any direct feedback of what the customer thought i was doing,” she said.

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a beginner’s guide to sustainable fashion

mon, 04 mar 2019 02:19:28 +0000

by anh nguyen & victoria middleton

have you ever considered the threads that keep you warm may be contributing to the warming of the planet?

clothing production has steadily increased for the last 2 decades due to fast fashion. and yet, nearly 60% of the clothing produced is disposed of within a year.

come along with victoria middleton, a student journalist and fashion junkie, to explore various options for dressing sustainably in dc, including stops at reformation, the dc sustainable fashion collective, and georgia avenue thrift store.

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citation

a new textiles economy: redesigning fashion’s future. the ellen macarthur foundation, 2017, www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/a-new-textiles-economy_full-report.pdf.

the price of fast fashion – nature news journal, nature publishing group, 2018, from www.nature.com/articles/s41558-017-0058-9.

kestenbaum, richard – secondhand clothes are a threat and an opportunity. forbes, forbes magazine, 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2018/04/03/secondhand-clothes-are-a-threat-and-an-opportunity/#3a7151716fdd.

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ivy city: at the corner of development and gentrification

tue, 07 nov 2017 12:00:00 +0000

“so is my life at ivywall: replete with beauty and enjoyment. and the rose, that is its central ornament and pride.” -thomas seaton donoho

donoho had a love for the ivy plant, so much so that he would write poetry and a book about the plant. but his greatest stamp on history for his love for ivy was the naming of the historic ivy city neighborhood in northeastern washington, d.c.

ivy city has a rose, the crummell school, which the residents in the neighborhood once had great pride and joy in. since its closure in 1977, the school has withered and been neglected by every stakeholder involved: local government, local businesses, and even the residents themselves.

after decades of neglect, in 2016 there were plans to redevelop the school after decades of no substantial plan. these plans would give the school the chance to bloom into the rose ivy city needs.

“the tale hath history told – but words are weak, and may not with the pencil’s eloquence speak.” -donoho

opened in 1911, the crummell school was named after african american preacher and academic alexander crummell. the school served the black community of ivy city, not only as a primary school, but as the community center that held the neighborhood together.

prior to the school closing in 1977, it experienced turmoil and problems that it never recovered from. in the years since, it has been a failed day care, a failed bus parking lot, and finally a d.c. historic site that the environmental protection agency has labeled a brownfield — a property “which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”

for the crummell school, the hazardous contaminants include arsenic, barium, chromium and lead. this contamination not only impedes the economic development of the land, but creates a negative environment for the public health of everyone in ivy city. cleaning and redeveloping the land will increase the standard of living for the residents in the neighborhood.

“my ivy, and mist the storm soon tear thee from thy trust, strewn wild and withering, and i, alone, hopeless to battle with a world or wrath!” -donoho

there are two redevelopment plans being explored. one plan turns the land into a community center, health clinic, 100% affordable housing, and a park. the other plan turns the land around the school into townhouses, restaurants, community center and the expansion of a local fish distributor.

the first plan, developed by empower dc — a local grassroots organization aimed at improving the lives of low and moderate-income washington, d.c. residents— ultimately lost in the bidding to ivy city partners, a group of businesses interested in developing the area, which has led to tension between all of the stakeholders.

parisa norouzi, the executive director of empower dc, hints that the tension of the crummell school project might increase.

“next steps may be lawsuits…by any means necessary,” she proclaimed. “it’s not a matter of playing fair at this point.”

the empower d.c. plan primarily was developed by the group, which already had represented the residents of ivy city in another instance when they faced a bus parking lot installation on the crummell school property. empower dc successfully sued to block the washington, d.c. government from turning the lot into a parking lot for tour buses. the project would have exposed residents to harmful exhaust fumes and other pollution, as well as additional traffic. the successful fight connected ivy city residents with empower dc, and proved the organization had the neighborhood’s well-being in mind.

the focus of empower dc’s plan was to create a space that would mirror the community’s needs with only 100% affordable housing, a health clinic and a community center. what would make the project elevate ivy city would be the addition of a park and basketball courts, in which the neighborhood has neither. both of these entities create positive environmental and public health outcomes that all members of ivy city will experience.

the benefits of a public park include decreased air pollution and car crashes due to the greater access to a walkable area, according to the center for disease control. the personal health benefits include risk of some cancers, improvement of mental health and mood, reduced instances of obesity, and the strengthening of bones of muscles due to increased physical activity.

“parks are essential for high density, urban, walkable areas. it’s important that the parks you build are not only well planned, but more importantly well managed,” said christopher leinberger, chair for the center for real estate & urban analysis at the george washington school of business.

for a park to work, “its best if the neighborhood itself manages the park…[and] have a source of funding” he stated. “wishing does not make it happen, someone has to have the foresight and a checkbook.”

these factors have to be in place so that citizens can reap all the benefits of a park, which is a challenge for any neighborhood.

“for sympathy had brought our lives together in a sweet unison: we smiled, we wept, we hoped and feared together.” -donoho

the construction of the park is the major benefit of the empower dc plan, however the main issue with the plan is that many jobs initially created will be lost when development is finished. ward 5d, the ward that ivy city is a part of, had an unemployment rate of 18% in 2015, double the city’s average. the poverty rate of the ward is worse, with 30% living below the poverty line in 2015, one of the highest in the city.

a community center and a health clinic are some things that ivy city needs, but the most important need in for the neighborhood is more jobs, which is not something that this bid could deliver.

“how the ivy climbs the tower, embracing it so lovingly, and struggling upward, still upward, with a proud affection, till both together share the sacred light.” -donoho

the other deal from ivy city partners comes from a place that is completely opposite of empower dc. the members of ivy city partners, jarvis company, stonebridge carras, and profish, are corporations with only one, profish, located in ivy city. these companies have a goal for the project to be focused on typical redevelopment,one focused on mixed-income housing and corporate expansion.

chanda washington of the deputy mayor of planning and economic development picked the ivy city partners plan due to the redevelopment plan, the sustainable building practices, and the community involvement. “it was community driven. we are impacting the citizens of the community” says washington.

the greatest benefit of the ivy city partners redevelopment is the jobs created to fill the void in the neighborhood. having profish expand the size and scale of its business, the company also plans to increase the number of employees it has. this would be best for the ivy city, and other surrounding neighborhoods like trinidad, in which 45.5% of the residents have a high school diploma or less.

“this is good news,” says leinberger. “it’s bringing jobs closer to the minority housing concentration on the east side of the region. it’s going to bring jobs, real jobs, jobs where you don’t need a college education.”

what is most important, for leinberger, is that the residents can learn a skill or a trade and be a part of a regional economy. this will make ivy city much less detached than how it has been for so many decades.

one aspect of the ivy city partners bid that is different than the empower dc bid is that there will be a focus on mixed-income housing. this is something that is polarizing when it comes to the redevelopment of struggling neighborhoods. on one side, there is an injection of money and capital from middle to upper middle-class residents that a neighborhood like ivy city desperately needs.

but on the flip side, there is a change of neighborhood that current residents feel would push them out.

norouzi feels that the ivy city partners plan will do just that. “the ivy city community has teetered [with] gentrification,” she said. the washington, d.c. government has hurt ivy city before, with the bus parking lot problem, because she asserts that the administration is in favor of gentrification. for norouzi, ivy city will be changed for the worse if the ivy city partners plan goes forward and not the empower dc plan.

but leinberger emphasizes, “the research shows that gentrified neighborhoods actually have less displacement than non-gentrified neighborhoods because they want to hang around, things have gotten better, why leave?”

he continues by saying there has to be a focus on making sure there is affordable housing for low-income renters, but people want to live in a nice neighborhood that has the jobs that the residents need.

a noticeable downside of ivy city partners is the lack of green space in the redevelopment plan. there will be small community gardens around the actual school, which will become the new community center, which is a stark difference then the empower dc park. the ivy city partners plan loses all of the benefits of the park that will help all of the residents of the neighborhood.

of heart-glow that may make it dear to some – recalling memory in her fairest looks, giving new sunshine to the present day, and confidence to meet the veiled future.” – donoho

in a perfect world, the positive aspects of both plans for the redevelopment of the crummell school would be in place. a well-managed park and community center along with jobs and mixed income housing would replace a decaying school and an empty lot. but in the real world that plan does not exist.

the future of ivy city is veiled, and there are many people, like parisa norouzi, that are not excited about the changes to come, and they aim to stop the plan. others, like chanda washington, think that ivy city partners plan is by the community and for the community. but one thing is true, with a community divided over these two options, ivy city cannot be “fixed in amber in all time” as christopher leinberger will assert.

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cultivating the city, one vacant lot at a time

mon, 28 aug 2017 12:15:48 +0000

by katherine lee

washington – when his co-workers began asking him for gardening advice, niraj ray did not know that his hobby had just become a calling and an enterprise.

in 2013, ray, who was working at the environmental protection agency, had taken to tending to the small gardens around his office for fun. it wasn’t difficult – he had done it in graduate school. people started asking him for help with their own home gardens. soon, a local elementary school asked for his guidance in helping children build gardens at school, and ray was awarded a $2,000 micro-grant to pursue the project.

teaching the students to take care of gardens, grow plants and eat healthy produce, ray realized that many vacant, unutilized spaces in the city could be converted into community gardens to grow and provide healthy local food. he found himself dedicating more and more of his time to the school and eventually quit his job at the epa to create a bigger network of different sites around the city that could grow food. that network is cultivate the city; today, ray operates 25 gardens that range from schools and sports parks to other vacant lots around the city.

cultivate the city also has 40 people enrolled in its summer community sustained agriculture program, which ends this week. the participants bought into shares of the farms’ produce at the beginning of summer and have been receiving products every week.

“for our csa, we deliver six vegetables, two fruits, one urban and one finished food product. it’s not like one garden has all that growing it, but it’s the combination of the 25 sites and the breadth of what we have at each site that allow us to be able to provide that mixture of stuff,” ray said.

in april 2016, ray also opened h street farms, a 6,500-sq.ft. space he refers to as the “garden center,” a garden located on the rooftop of hardware store w.s. jenks & son. ray rented the space from the hardware store that also had just moved in two months earlier. hearing that the rooftop once had been used as a parking lot was good news: that meant the rooftop could support the heavy weight of greenhouses and aquaponics system.

the rooftop farm now serves as a central storage and retail facility for the 25 sites that cultivate the city operates, and ray also hosts gardening workshops for the public every saturday.

“here, we can create a space where people can come and hang out and just know that there are always plants here. that’s our goal here,” ray said.

at various corners of the garden are also ethnic crops that ray supplies to a local indian restaurant. when he started farming in florida, his father gave him a shoebox full of seeds for indian ethnic crops. his indian grandmother had used and collected the seeds on his grandparents’ farm. after he began planting indian crops and learning about their characteristics, he took his crops to a local indian grocery store and started selling them. after moving to d.c., he found an indian restaurant owner who might want to work with him to source her ingredients locally. had it not been for his supply, ray said, she would have had to import the crops from india or mexico. by buying from him, the restaurant owner was able to reduce costs and dramatically reduce her restaurant’s carbon footprint.

cultivate the city now regularly supplies crops and produce to four restaurants and two grocery stores. last year, it produced 6,500 lbs of crops and produce. this year, the volume has increased threefold, and ray projects the number to continue to grow in the four or five growing seasons within the next year.

“most of our goals now are hitting the numbers,” ray said. the first couple years tended to be more experimental, but cultivate the city has gotten past that. his objective is to monetize and get the greatest function out of all 25 gardens. “we’re not expanding to too many schools, and we want to increase our production per site. we want to be able to better convey that number to future clients and projects.”

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don’t kill my buzz

thu, 23 feb 2017 05:04:40 +0000

by emily robinson and nolan hausler

roof to table takes it to the next level. literally. not just one, but a few levels up: to the roof. all it takes is a smartphone — and the youtube app.

this 360° video puts the power in your hands. because up here, you’re not alone. look up, look down, look all around. it’s buzzing with life.

the roof’s no longer over your head, but the food’s still on the table — for now.

where’s it going? follow it from roof to table. suit up and join us. and when you’re done, shout “hey honey” across the room because they’ll want to experience this too.

go ahead — see for yourself. this is moving the planet forward.

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