The City of Alexandria in Virginia has agreed to a settlement that will accelerate the effort to clean up the Potomac River.
Specifically, the settlement with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network means Alexandria will engage in the cleanup of coal tar and creosote — pollutants that have been seeping into the river for decades. The source of the pollution was a leak from a storm sewer at the site of the former Alexandria Town Gas manufacturing plant.
For over 45 years, coal tar has been discharged into the Potomac River near Alexandria’s Founders Park, according to Dean Naujoks with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network. He said he first came across the pipe in 2015 and that negotiations with the city over how to clean up the pollution had broken down at one point.
“Finally, we filed a lawsuit in early 2022,” Naujoks said.
Referring to the settlement with Alexandria, Naujoks told WTOP, “We’ve both agreed on the remedy, as well as some of the long-term solutions” to clean up the source of pollution that he said “has been going on for quite some time.”
Naujoks said the site of the leak was “particularly troubling,” since the storm sewer outfall is near Founders Park, a recreational site used by kayakers, paddlers and anglers.
“It’s just very dangerous,” Naujoks said. “We know that there’s a lot of people that fish from that location, there’s subsistence fishing.”
Part of the settlement includes the city’s agreement to pay $300,000 for a project to add more than 20,000 freshwater mussels to the river.
“These are important filter feeders,” Naujoks said. “This is part of our commitment to putting 50 million freshwater mussels back into the Potomac River to help clean up and improve water quality.”
A statement released by the city said Alexandria entered a VRP, or voluntary remediation plan, in 2000 that made “significant progress” toward “remediating the site” of the old gas plant. The city’s current capital budget plan includes $11.8 million to address the remaining coal tar contamination, according to the statement.
Legal action is a common strategy in cases of environmental action. Last month, D.C.’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced a $57 million settlement from Pepco to resolve allegations that the utility discharged toxic chemicals that contributed to “persistent” pollution of the Anacostia River.
The bulk of that settlement, $47 million, will go toward the cleanup of the Anacostia River. Ten million dollars is also being paid in civil penalties.
