The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE POTOMAC--AN ENDANGERED RIVER” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1165-E1166 on June 8, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE POTOMAC--AN ENDANGERED RIVER
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HON. RANDY ``DUKE'' CUNNINGHAM
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 8, 1999
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus and District of Columbia Appropriations Subcommittee, I am deeply concerned about the environment in and around our nation's capital.
Two years ago the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus held a monthly informational briefing on fishing in the Washington, D.C. area. Following that briefing I submitted for the record an article written by Charles Verharen, a Professor at Howard University and avid local fisherman, that highlighted threats to the Potomac River fishery.
At the request of local fishermen, a study on the impact of sediment discharge on anadromous fish was initiated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin, the District of Columbia Fish and Wildlife, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The report concludes that this sediment discharge is causing a significant adverse impact to anadromous fish during the spawning season.
I have attached another article by Charles Verharen that describes the impact of this environmental problem. In addition, I have enclosed the summary of recommendations from the Fish and Wildlife Service report to update my colleagues on the problems facing the Potomac River environment.***HD***JOE FLETCHER'S FISH STORY
(By Charles Verharen)
Joe Fletcher is tempted to cry over his beloved river. And a recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report claims he has good reason.
Joe and his family have rented fishing boats on the Potomac at Fletcher's Boat House for three generations. One of Joe's favorite stories--not about a fisherman but a ferry passenger--shows why he's sad.
Joe's story starts in colonial times when the Potomac was one of the greatest fisheries in the world. George Washington owned highly profitable commercial fishing rights on the Potomac near Mount Vernon. The king of all fish in the Potomac was the sturgeon, ranging up to ten feet in length and weighing over four hundred pounds. Potomac caviar was a delicacy prized around the world.
In colonial Washington, the only way across the Potomac was by ferry. One time a sturgeon leaped out of the water and landed on a Georgetown passenger sitting in a small ferry's stern. The fish was so huge that it crushed the man's hip and he died from the injury several weeks later.
Joe's doubly sad when he tells this story--sad about the passenger and sad that sturgeon leap out of the Potomac no more. But now Joe's got something else to be sad about. He fears that the sturgeon's fate threatens rockfish (striped bass) and shad, abundant at Fletcher's Cove even in times when the Potomac was one of the most polluted rivers in America.
Ironically, Joe blames this new threat of extinction on pure water. The Washington Aqueduct drinking water treatment plant discharges the equivalent of up to twenty five dump-truck loads of aluminum and copper sulfates and other waste material into the Potomac above Chain Bridge every day as a by-product of its water purifying process.
Joe fears the chemicals are damaging the spawn and fry--as well as fishing. ``Every time the water treatment plant dumps a big load into the river,'' Joe claims, ``the fish just stop biting.''
Joe can't imagine Washingtonians would sit still if they saw twenty five trucks parked on Key Bridge dumping waste into the Potomac. And twenty five trucks a day adds up to over nine thousand trucks a year. ``How many times would nine thousand trucks go around the Beltway?'', Joe wonders.
A recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report on the Washington Aqueduct confirms Joe's fears. Prepared by Fish and Wildlife's Chesapeake Bay field office and a panel of area-wide fisheries biologists, the report advocates eliminating all Washington Aqueduct waste discharges into the Potomac, one of fourteen American Heritage Rivers targeted for ``environmental, economic, and social restoration projects.''
Surprisingly, the panel claims shortnose sturgeon have been found in the lower and middle Potomac, and Aqueduct waste discharge points are potential spawning habitats for sturgeon. The panel's report asks the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the Aqueduct's potential threat to a sturgeon comeback.
The EPA gives the Washington Aqueduct a permit to discharge its waste. Long past its expiration date, the permit has been
``administratively extended.'' The EPA won't renew the permit in its present form because the Army Corps of Engineers which operates the Washington Aqueduct isn't doing everything it can to clean up its waste.
The Corps could truck the waste to disposal sites but a citizens group that calls itself ``CRUDD'' (Committee for Responsible Urban Disposal at Dalecarlia, the old name for the Aqueduct) doesn't want the trucks threatening their children's safety and their Palisade neighborhood's clean air.
The waste could be pumped to Washington's Blue Plains waste water treatment plant through existing sewer lines, but the Washington Aqueduct would have to pay for using the lines and enlarging Blue Plains treatment capacity. The local governments that buy clean water from the Aqueduct don't feel that Washington area residents want to pay extra taxes to stop the Potomac pollution.
Those same customers want to save money by paying chicken farmers and other polluters upstream to stop their discharge. The EPA allows polluters to buy and sell pollution rights from one another. But that kind of exchange wouldn't save the fish.
Joe Fletcher thinks that if Washingtonians knew how dirty their clean drinking water makes the Potomac, they might want to pay a little extra so the shad and the rockfish have a chance to make a comeback. Joe even dreams about the day he might see a sturgeon breaking the water close to his boat--but not too close!
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Department of the Interior,
Fish and Wildlife Service
Annapolis, MD, March 2, 1999.Re: Washington Aqueduct Report.
Ms. Patricia Gleason,U.S. EPA, Region III,Water Protection Division,Philadelphia, PA.
Ms. Gleason: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin, District of Columbia Fish and Wildlife, and National Marine Fisheries Service have completed a report on the sediment discharges from the Washington Aqueduct, Washington, D.C. The enclosed report concludes that significant adverse impacts to anadromous fish during the spawning season could occur from the sediment discharges. The report entitled, ``Washington Aqueduct Sediment Discharges Report of Panel Recommendations'' includes recommendations to the Aqueduct Administrators on how to minimize the impacts during the spawning season.
We appreciate the opportunity to provide information relevant to fish and wildlife resources. If you have any questions on this report, please contact David W. Sutherland at (410) 573-4535 or [email protected]
Sincerely,
Robert J. Pennington,
Acting Supervisor,
Chesapeake Bay Field Office.
Enclosure.
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Washington Aqueduct Sediment Discharges
Report of Panel Recommendations
Fisheries Panel Summary of Recommendations, March 1999
A panel of fisheries biologists from the District of Columbia, State of Maryland, Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, National Marine Fisheries Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was convened to provide recommendations on minimizing impacts to migratory fish from sediment discharges at the Washington Aqueduct. The fisheries panel provides these recommendations to the administrators at the Washington Aqueduct in an effort to advance the anadromous (and resident) fish restoration efforts in the Potomac River. By minimizing the adverse effects to water quality from sediment discharges at the Dalecarlia and Georgetown settling basins, fisheries resource managers have a better chance at achieving fish and habitat restoration goals for the Potomac River.
1. The goal is to eliminate sediment discharges to the Potomac River. If sediment discharges are absolutely necessary, the panel recommends eliminating the flocculent/sediment discharges from February 15 to June 15, to avoid the early and late spawning activities of migratory fish.
2. Mix the flocculent/sediments with raw river water in the settling basins to produce an effluent, that when discharged to the river, reduces the adverse impacts of concentrated sediments on migratory fish.
3. Slow the rate of flocculent/sediment discharge to the river to a minimum of 72 hours per basin. We recommend that the ratio of discharge to river flow be less that 0.1%. This will also reduce the adverse impacts to migratory fish from concentrated sediments entering the river.
4. Monitor water quality daily at the discharge sites to identify a time when water quality conditions are least sensitive to sediment discharges in the river. The water quality monitoring parameters include: pH, temperature, alkalinity, and conductivity.
5. Remove rocks from the Dalecarlia outfall to ensure controlled and measurable sediment discharge rates, and establish outfall maintenance and discharge monitoring plans to promote safe operation and predictable discharge rates.
6. Create a panel of stakeholders to assist the Washington Aqueduct with issues relating to the Potomac River ecosystem. These entities could include citizen coalition, local, state, interstate, and federal representatives.
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